Final Hours
by SailorMoonV
Summary: When the last vampire has fallen and there is only one other dunpeal to contend with.... can D really consign them both to oblivion?
1. Day 0 Castle Niles

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.)

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

((Day 0, Castle Niles))

It was the beginning of the end, at least from his perspective, and he was  
tired enough to almost be glad for it. He was old, far older than the one who  
was threatening not just his existence but his legacy as well, the legacy of  
his entire species. He was the last true vampire left, and judging from the  
chaos echoing down the hallway he would not live to feel the gentle tug of the  
rising sun on his dark soul one last time.

He might have resisted a little more strongly if the sights in the sky  
hadn't so thoroughly crushed his hopes. Pieces of the City of the Night still  
rained down at odd intervals, briefly setting the sky ablaze as fragments were  
incinerated by friction. He knew when the magnificent city had been destroyed,  
that last bastion of his kind that once twinkled and glittered in the night sky  
as it orbited the planet. All that he wanted to learn in his final hours of  
existence was whether or not he had anything to do with it, the one who would  
shortly be his executioner.

Enough, he told himself as he allowed his eyes to briefly close. He knew  
this day would come eventually, but he hadn't expected it to be so.... tiring.  
Was it the stress of living for so long, watching not just the days or the  
years grind past, but the centuries slipping past him, no more noticed than a  
single grain of sand among so many others in the hourglass? Or was it worry  
for what the future would be like after he was gone? He cared little for who  
would cry for him, but rather was curious in an academic sense about who would  
mourn the loss of his kind.

She would, of course, but that was to be expected of one's daughter. He  
opened his eyes and turned to look at her, easily seeing so much of her mother  
in the soft lines of her face. He was tired enough not to care about his own  
passing, but the last of his children.... that was something else.

"Galen," he said quietly. He waited until she lifted her head up, wanting  
to see the odd liquid-like coloring of her eyes one last time. "You should go  
from here."

"I'm not leaving you," she countered. She dared not raise her voice to  
him, but the soft undercurrent of defiance was still quite audible.

"It is of little use to postpone the inevitable," he said with a gentle  
shake of his head. "I am not sending you away to protect you, as we both know  
he will find you eventually. I merely do not wish to spoil your memory of me,  
that is all. It would break what is left of my heart if you were to see me in  
death instead of remembering me in life. Please, humor an old man and go from  
this place. Confront him if you wish, but do not let it be in my sight for I  
want to remember you as you are now. Please, my daughter," he added in a soft  
tone few had ever heard from him before.

She reached out to touch him, a pair of tears silently falling from her  
cheeks as she held his hand for the last time. The black satin cape around her  
shoulders seemed to shimmer slightly before wrapping tightly around her, a hood  
sliding over her head to conceal all but the softness of her pale blue lips in  
darkness. "Father, when he comes...." she started to say as she stood up.

"Please," he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You need not  
worry about any suffering. My death will be quick and perhaps even painless,  
that much I can promise you." He paused to tilt his head at a slight angle,  
listening to the mental screams inside his head as his guards continued to try  
to protect him, only to be cut down by a seemingly unstoppable entity. "He  
approaches," he warned her quietly. "Leave while there is still time."

"Father...." she whispered quietly, unable to say anything more.

"You've never defied me before, Galen," he said calmly. "Do not start to  
defy me now. Go."

He sighed and leaned back in the throne as she nodded and turned away,  
making use of a hidden passage concealed by a modest-sized tapestry. Perhaps  
it was a cliche to have built it as such, but of the six previous visits to his  
dark castle by vampire-hunters, only twice had someone lived long enough to  
reach his throne room and neither hunter had noticed the concealed door.

This hunter would be different, however, for that which could easily be  
hidden from humans could not be so easily hidden from his kind. Or from one  
with the blood of both.

Even as he thought about it, he realized that the clangs of metal and the  
inaudible screams in his mind had ceased. He found the silence to be.... a  
welcome sound, an indication that this would finally end soon and he would be  
at peace with a universe that had tormented him since his descent into the  
realm of darkness.

"So it finally ends," he said quietly as the double doors creaked open.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------D said nothing as he slowly entered the room, his sword held at the ready.  
Four colors of blood stained the length of his blade, all slowly running down  
towards the tip to drip onto the crimson carpeting. His eyes never wavered  
from the figure seated on the ancient throne, intent on finally fulfilling what  
he had come to believe was his sole reason for existence.

"Greetings, D," the vampire said calmly. "You would not remember this, of  
course, but we have met once before. You were still a child then, barely more  
than a toddler at your mother's knee. I would welcome you to my castle, but  
given the purpose of your visit.... no matter. Please, sheathe your sword and  
have a seat," he added with a gesture to a cushioned stool. "I should like to  
ask you something before I am consigned to being little more than a footnote in  
the annals of history."

D looked at him for a moment before slowly reaching up, sliding his sword  
back into the scabbard on his back. "I think history already has a suitable  
place for you, Count Niles," he said in a neutral tone, making no move to sit.

"Perhaps," the vampire replied with a slow nod of his head. "I have taken  
great pains to verify this one, as you no doubt have as well. With the utter  
destruction of the City of the Night, you and I are the last of the nobles."

"You and your daughter," D corrected.

The old man sighed quietly and seemed to slump back in his throne. "So  
you would hunt her down and murder her as well?" he asked softly. He received  
only silence in reply and sighed again. "No matter, D. I should like to ask  
you a question, and a truthful reply would be appreciated more than you could  
possibly know." He paused for a moment before adding, "The City of the Night."

"I had nothing to do with its destruction," D replied truthfully.

Niles nodded slowly, seeming to be relieved at the reply. "Thank you, D,  
I would not liked to have thought that you would have done such a thing. Or  
would you?" he added in a faintly accusing tone.

D remained silent for a number of moments before speaking up. "Once my  
work here on the planet was finished, I would have sought a way to travel to  
the City of the Night," he explained carefully. "Perhaps destroying it like  
that would have been my only option, but it would not have been.... my way."

"Indeed," the vampire said, a faint hint of a smile crossing his face as  
he assessed the dunpeal standing before him. The moment of humor left just as  
quickly as it had come, leaving him feeling even more tired than before. "Do  
you by chance know what happened, then?" he inquired out of idle curiosity.

"Countess MacDara's shuttle wasn't in her castle," D said calmly. "When  
she died and the castle fell, a band of humans discovered where she had taken  
it for repairs. From what I've heard, they loaded it with the most powerful  
explosives they could find and launched it on an automated docking course, set  
to blow up when the hatch was opened."

Niles said nothing for at least a full minute, trying not to think about  
the chain-reaction that would have gone off. He had visited the City himself  
in his youth and could picture the way the docking bays were set up. If the  
main hatch was open when the explosives went off, the blast would have coursed  
along the network of service conduits to ignite anything combustible it came  
across.... like the honeycombs of liquid oxygen tanks. The blast would then be  
multiplied by a frightening factor, spreading throughout the super-structure  
until the pressure of the expanding gas ruptured the hull....

"Ironic that it would be Elaine's shuttle," he finally said softly, more  
to himself than to D. "She was an unusually quiet woman, even among nobles.  
Probably one of the few of our kind that I will truly miss. No matter," he  
said with a soft sigh before looking up to stare at D.

"When I look at you, D, I can easily see the resemblance to your mother,"  
the vampire said in a gentle tone. "I remember the first time I met her, so  
full of life and beauty. It was all too easy to see what your father saw in  
such a woman. Tell me, D, was it her rather brutal murder that drove you to  
hate us so, to commit yourself to a one-dunpeal crusade bent on nothing less  
than complete and total genocide?"

D's eyes narrowed as the vampire leaned forward, resting his elbows on his  
knees. "Is that it, D?" Niles mused, a faint look of amusement crossing the  
heavy lines of his face. "Do you still hear her screams in your dreams, hear  
her voice calling out for your father, begging for mercy, for release? I must  
confess I sometimes still do," he said absently, leaning back and removing a  
gold-plated locket from around his neck.

D caught the pendant in his left hand as it sailed across the room to him,  
casting a single glance down at it before feeling his blood freeze as it had  
never froze before in his entire existence.

"Yes, I remember your mother quite well," the vampire said lightly as he  
leaned back even further in his throne. "I remember how she was brought to me,  
right to the very spot where you stand now. Her clothes had someone failed to  
make the trip with her, but that only made it easier for me to marvel at her  
true beauty. Oh, what a woman she was, with such flawless, perfect skin that  
was soft to the touch...."

D's hand tightened around the locket so hard that it began to cut into his  
skin, drawing a tiny trickle of blood that slowly oozed down his wrist. The  
thing in his hand began to wriggle uncomfortably as it was also crushed by his  
suddenly shaking grip, remaining oddly quiet for reasons of its own.

"You cannot imagine how sweet her blood tasted, how warm and intoxicating  
it was," Niles continued in that mockingly calm tone, a smile that was close to  
a sneer on his lips. "Or how warm and inviting her body was when I raped her.  
Her screams still haunt me every now and then, but I have only to stop for a  
moment to remember what your father did to my friends to be free from any sense  
of guilt. Strike and be struck, harm and be harmed.... or as the humans say,  
an eye for an eye. Is that not the way your father ruled, D?"

A soft hissing noise filled the room as D pulled his sword out from the  
scabbard. The blade was still wet with the blood of the vampire's minions,  
seeming to gleam in the light like a macabre prism. The world became a solid  
veil of dark blue a moment later as his vampiric nature freely asserted itself,  
unbound for once from the normally tight grip of his human will.

"So the hunter reveals himself," Niles said quietly. "A little hypocricy  
by relying on your father's blood to aid you in killing your father's kind? No  
matter, dunpeal," he said as he unbuttoned his tunic, pulling the halves aside  
to bare his chest. "I grow tired of this, D. Come, let us see if my death  
will silence the screams of your mother.... that wonderful human woman...." he  
whispered to himself before he began to laugh.

D couldn't have refused the offer if he had wanted to. The air itself  
seemed to scream in terror as he sliced through it, charging forward to bury  
the tip of his blade in the vampire's chest. Driven by a fury and rage that  
had been countless centuries in the making, the heart muscle was neatly split  
in half by the blade's force, held together only by the thinnest threads of  
muscle tissue that were sundered an instant later as it reflexively tried to  
beat one last time.

The force behind the thrust would not be, could not be stalled. The tip  
missed the spine by a fraction of an inch and promptly exited through the back.  
Encountering the heavy metal of the throne barely slowed the blade as it went  
further, blowing through the back of the chair as if didn't exist and embedding  
the first two inches of the tip in the solid granite wall that stood behind the  
ancient throne.

The sound of the laughter continued to ring in his ears long after the  
voice that had fed it fell silent, the air becoming perfectly still and the  
corpse ceasing to twitch beneath his hands. The sword, however, continued to  
vibrate in his hands, subtly at first before increasing in strength to a tremor  
that made him slowly edge away.

((D!)) the thing in his hand suddenly yelled. ((Energy trap!))

It took him a moment to throw off the dark rage and think clearly, the  
urgent words registering on his mind a moment later. He quickly whirled around  
and ran for the open doors, able to physically feel the amount of energy that  
was gathering behind him.

The shockwave washed over him just as he dove through the door, trying to  
roll with the incredible force of the ancient vampire's soul being freed from  
its mortal bonds. He could feel it searing his skin, countless years of dark  
and unholy energy being released in a single burst. Through it all, despite  
the pain of the glare visible even through tightly-closed eyelids, only one  
thought rose up from his mind.

He had just lost Doris' sword back there.

It was an odd thing for him to have thought of, he realized once the worst  
of the energy burst faded away. He had just found his mother's killer after  
all this time, having gave up hope hundreds of years ago that he would be able  
to identify which vampire had desecrated her so. And yet, with her locket in  
his hand, the locket he still remembered after all this time.... his mind was  
on the sword Doris had given him.

((D?)) it prodded him as he remained perfectly still on the carpet. ((D, we  
need to get going. The castle's starting to come apart already and the front  
door isn't just across the hall. D, come on, you've got to get up! You can  
think about what he said later, which isn't going to happen if you're still on  
your ass when the ceiling comes down! Now let's GO!))

He really couldn't say that it was a desire for life that made him get up  
and start moving. Perhaps it was his subconscious mind working in an autopilot  
mode that guided his body through the maze-like corridors and hallways. Maybe  
the thing in his hand had figured out how to take control of his body and was  
steering him towards the massive arched doors of the now-shaking castle. All  
he knew was that his thoughts remained on the sword he had just lost, and with  
it the only physical reminder he had of....

Of his first love.

It had taken him a full century after he had met the second human woman he  
found himself falling in love with to realize how much they had both meant to  
him. Doris had touched his humanity, showing him that there was still a part  
of him left that could truly connect to humans. When he had met Leila she had  
touched his human soul, making him realize that he was far more human than he  
had thought possible, that it was possible for a dunpeal like himself to open  
his heart and yield to the loving warmth of another.

The sword has been a gift from Doris after he had lost his in the fight  
against Count Magnus Lee. He had kept the blade by his side through all the  
trials he had faced since, giving him a strength that he had only truly became  
aware of when Leila touched his heart. A single white flower petal had been  
encapsulated and woven into the clasp around his knife belt, taken from the  
bouquet of flowers he had brought to Leila's grave to keep his promise to her.  
He had never been a sentimental man, but keeping those two items as memento  
mori had brought him a feeling of comfort that he could still not explain to  
this day.

And now the sword was gone.

((D....)) it warned him, causing him to refocus on his surroundings. He was  
on the marble causeway that bridged the front doors of the castle with the edge  
of the landscape, crossing over a deep ravine that seemed to stretch on for an  
eternity. Behind him, the castle was already masked behind a cloud of ash and  
dust as it slowly crumbled away. However, the problem at hand wasn't what was  
behind him, but what was in front of him.

A cloaked figure stood near the end of the bridge, shrouded in a glossy  
black hooded cape that concealed all facial features. What it couldn't conceal  
was the slender shape of the figure beneath it, clearly denoting the presence  
of a woman. He could feel the weight of her stare as he approached, absently  
tucking his mother's pendant into a pouch.

He came to a halt as her hand slipped inside the cape, able to hear the  
rasping of metal as she drew a weapon. The light of the setting sun glinted  
off the silvery rapier as her other hand came up, pushing the hood back to  
expose a mass of blue-green hair and a pair of liquid-like eyes.

"So you're D," she said quietly, her voice laced with steel.

D said nothing as he regarded her carefully, keenly aware of the fact that  
he didn't have his sword with him. That wasn't to say he was unarmed, having  
a pair of daggers on his belt, but he would really have felt a little less  
edgy with the situation if he could rely on the sword's reach and strength.

"I need not ask you if my father is dead," she spat bitterly, raising the  
rapier slightly. "I only have one question for you.... are you armed? Good,"  
she said as D withdrew one of the daggers from his belt. "Then we can finish  
things here and now with honor. We may be the last of our kind, but I will die  
with the satisfaction of knowing that my father will be avenged. EN GARDE!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------It would have been an amusing battle to watch if the situation wasn't so  
serious. Armed with only a dagger and going against a much more versatile  
weapon with a vastly longer reach, D was put on the defensive almost instantly.  
It was only because of his abilities as a dunpeal that he was able to dodge her  
thrusts so quickly, only able to use his dagger to divert the slender shaft of  
her weapon away instead of blocking it.

In another situation he might have retreated, fallen back and avoided her  
until he was confident he was properly equipped to deal with her. However, he  
was not in his usual state of mind. Still in a quiet rage at the discovery of  
the identity of his mother's murderer and fueled by the realization that he was  
not only going up against the killer's daughter but the last of his kind, being  
so close to finally ending his hunt once and for all, he threw caution to the  
winds and pressed his attack as best he could, intent on his final goal.

They fought for a good five minutes before he finally realized that he was  
simply not capable of winning the battle as it stood. He had just decided on  
a change of tactics and was reaching for the other dagger in his belt when the  
entire bridge shuddered violently, throwing them both off-balance. They both  
recovered almost instantly, but she was able to seize the opportunity just a  
hair faster than he could have.

The tip of her rapier smoothly slid into his abdomen as she thrust, just  
narrowly avoiding his kidney as it emerged out the other side. Not prepared  
for a proper counter-strike, D allowed himself to react by pure instinct alone.  
Bracing it against the palm of his left hand, he slammed the flat of his dagger  
against the metal shaft of her rapier just above the hilt. The carbon alloy of  
his weapon promptly shattered into fragments, but not before it was able to  
severely weaken the physical integrity of the thin foil. Driven by both pain  
and desperation, his hand continued forward as hard as it could to follow right  
behind the ruined dagger.

The sound of the rapier's blade snapping off at the base echoed in their  
ears like a thunderclap, shocking them both. Before either one could react to  
the new development, the marble structure of the bridge fell out from beneath  
them at an angle to send them both skidding towards the abyss.

D dug in by instinct, his fingernails ripping away as he tried to secure  
a hold on the smooth marble. His boots provided just enough friction to slow  
him down, giving him the opportunity to properly brace himself. The fire in  
his abdomen almost made him lose his tentative grip, the broken shaft of the  
weapon still poking out from his skin and dripping blood at both ends.

He was preparing to make an attempt at scaling the angled surface when it  
shifted again, the angle almost doubling and causing him to lose his hold. A  
heavy sucking sound filled the air an instant later, his left hand slamming  
into the smooth surface as it tried to hang on using the power of raw suction.

He knew that the thing was trying to save him, to save them both, but he  
knew that it couldn't hold out for more than a few seconds. He quickly looked  
around for options but saw none, finding only the gaping maw of the abyss below  
him, waiting for him.

So it ends, he thought as a sense of peace filled him. He saw his life  
flash before his eyes in a cosmic instant, seeing the warmth of his mother's  
smile, hearing her soft melodic voice singing him to sleep, feeling the sheer  
rage and fury in his father's screams as he found her broken body dumped on the  
steps of his palace, feeling the cold metal of the sword in his hands as he  
removed it from the wall, vowing to avenge his mother's murder, crossing the  
planet from one end to another once, twice, three times to search for the one  
vampire who killed her, killing the others as they mocked his mother's death,  
mocking his dunpeal heritage, eventually vowing to end the dark plague of evil  
that had enshrouded the warmth of life for so long....

"D!" a voice screamed out at him, causing him to refocus and look up. She  
was only a few feet away from him, a burning red glow in her eyes as she tried  
to reach out to him. Her cape was all that kept her from falling, the black  
satin coiled around a broken strut like a living being, seeming to strain to  
support her weight as she tried reaching out to him again....

"Give me your hand!" she demanded. "Quickly!"

All he could do was blink in surprise, staring at her in disbelief. What  
was she trying to do? Could she be.... trying to save him? After what they  
were trying to do ten seconds ago?

The thing in his hand suddenly started screaming a warning, the audible  
part of its voice completely blocked out as it struggled to hold on. The part  
that he heard in his mind was unintelligible, only being registered as the last  
gasps of someone at the very end of their limit.

"D!" she yelled across the narrow void, unconsciously baring her fangs.

He knew the choice was simple.... either yield to her and surrender to her  
whims, or face certain death. Her grip seemed secure, making it unlikely that  
she would be sent tumbling into the darkness unless another tremor hit. It was  
possible that she was offering her hand so that she could kill him herself, to  
have that one single measure of satisfaction.

It ends either way, he thought with surprising calmness. Staying put was  
not much of an option, for even if the thing could hold on he would have to  
remove the blade from his side or bleed to death. Letting go was technically  
an option, but the result would be undeniable. Accepting was the true unknown,  
but at this point, during this final hour.... what could a few more seconds of  
mortal existence do to him?

He braced as best he could and launched himself into the air just as the  
thing lost its suction-grip, slicing the side of his hand open on the edge of  
the marble causeway. For one brief instant he thought he had missed, or that  
she had just wanted to make him jump only to snatch her hand away. The feel  
of her grip on his hand registered a moment later, the sudden tension almost  
snapping the bones in his right wrist.

She held onto him as tightly as she could, holding him with both hands.  
They both hung there for a moment, rocking back and forth from the force of the  
contact. They braced an instant later as another tremor shook, dislodging the  
chunk of marble he had been holding onto and sending it tumbling into the inky  
void that seemed to lap at their heels.

((Hold on,)) she said to him, her voice seeming to be distorted into a raw,  
almost mechanical timbre. She began to flex her body, causing them to swing  
back and forth with increasing velocity. She waited until they were moving at  
a fairly decent speed before heaving with all of her strength, timing it just  
right to take advantage of the swinging motion.

D made a strangled gasp as she suddenly let go of him, sending him into  
the air on a ballistic arc. He barely had time to realize what was going on  
before he slammed into the remaining portion of the causeway, his instincts  
telling him to roll back to avoid the edge. The motion proved to be an unwise  
one, driving the broken rapier shaft deeper into his abdomen as his weight was  
pressed down.

((D!)) it screamed at him, seeming to be genuinely shocked to still be  
alive. ((DON'T MOVE!))

He ignored it as he rose up to his hands and knees, crawling towards the  
lip of the broken bridge. "Just.... hang.... on...." he said, spitting out a  
mouthful of his own blood as he grabbed on to the exposed strut with his left  
hand in as tight a grip as he could manage.

((D, what are you doing?)) it sputtered, the voice sounding odd as its lips  
were mashed flat.

He leaned over the edge as far as he dared, trying to hold on to the strut  
with what little strength he had left while reaching down with his right hand  
to grab hold of the edge of the cape. He got what he thought was a firm grip  
on the taut material and started to pull back, slowly drawing her up to where  
she could reach the edge.

The material seemed to tense suddenly, almost ripping free from his grip  
before a pair of hands rose up to grab the uneven marble edge. One of them  
slipped for a horrifying instant before getting a better hold, bracing as a leg  
was heaved up and over the edge.

D let go of the cape and slumped back on his side, listening as she flung  
herself onto firm ground. They both edged a few inches away from the abyss and  
spent the next few seconds trying to relax, both panting hard from the amount  
of exertion required.

Galen lifted her head up as D moaned, watching as he reached down to try  
to rip the broken foil out of his abdomen. It seemed to resist his efforts  
before it finally slipped free, prompting a deep gasp of pain that made her  
cringe with reflexive sympathy. Her blue-green eyes followed the path of the  
blade as it was sent spinning into the empty air, succumbing to the pull of  
gravity a moment later and silently disappearing into the chasm.

She blinked as she heard him whisper her name, looking back at him just in  
time to watch him spit out another mouthful of blood. The dark red splotch on  
the ground made her shiver lightly despite her being very much accustomed to  
the sight, smell, and taste of the crimson nectar.

"Galen," he said quietly, lifting his head up to look at her. A faint  
blue glow was visible in his eyes as he studied her in silence before finally  
speaking to her again. "Why.... did you save me?" he breathed, the soft words  
obviously causing him a fair amount of pain.

The corners of her mouth arched down in a frown as she stared back at him.  
"I'm asking myself that same question right now," she said in a flat tone. "By  
all rights I should have cast you into the abyss myself for what you've done."

He continued to look at her for a moment before turning his head to one  
side, spitting another small blob of blood into the void. "And what exactly  
have I done?" he inquired calmly, his right hand gingerly probing his side.

It took her a moment to close her mouth, having fallen open at the sheer  
audacity of his question. "You dare ask such a question?" she spat. "You just  
killed my father and brought an entire culture to extinction!"

He leaned back against the marble railing with a very soft grunt, his eyes  
never once leaving hers. "Your father," he said very slowly, "Brutally raped  
and murdered my mother."

"You lie!" she snarled as she shot to her feet, the crimson glow starting  
to return to her eyes. "I know him, he would never do such a thing!"

"You know what he is now," D replied quietly. "I've heard how he seemed  
to change after your birth, but that doesn't change his true self."

Her eyes narrowed to mere slits as she started at him. "You dare accuse  
my father of a dishonorable crime?" she hissed. She tensed as his hand went to  
his belt, bringing something up to glint in the fading sunlight. She jumped  
back as it came sailing through the air towards her, only reaching up to catch  
it at the last possible instant.

She felt her blood suddenly grow cold as she saw the golden locket in her  
hand, recognizing it as one of the few pieces of jewelry her father had ever  
worn with any consistency. "What is this?" she demanded in a low tone, giving  
him a poisonous look. "First you murder him, then you rob his corpse too?"

"Open it," D said very softly.

She blinked again as the momentary flush of anger left her, leaving her  
feeling deathly cold inside. "Open it?" she repeated, not ever having been  
aware that it could be opened. She had examined it on occasion, but never saw  
any hinges or a locking mechanism that would indicate it was hollow.

"Press down on the anchor," he instructed in an empty tone.

She looked down at the small locket and did as he said, very carefully  
pressing down on the short stem where the locket was attached to the necklace.  
Her hand flew to her mouth as it quietly flipped open, revealing a pair of very  
tiny portraits.

The one on the left was a family portrait, a man and a woman holding their  
infant son. The woman had a soft smile on her lips while the man had a dark,  
almost brooding look on his face. The portrait on the right was one of a very  
young boy, apparently an older version of the infant. The eyes and the hair  
were the same, and as she studied the man in the first portrait she suddenly  
realized what she was looking at.

"Oh my god...." she breathed softly, almost dropping the locket in shock.  
"This is a portrait of the Vampire King," she said as she looked up at him, her  
liquid eyes seeming to be close to becoming flooded with tears. "And there was  
only one woman he had taken as his wife. D.... how could this have ended up in  
my father's possession?"

D said nothing, simply looking at her as he waited for his wounds to seal  
themselves. The amount of blood he had lost was trivial, as his regenerative  
abilities would easily make up the volume before the sun finished setting.

"No...." she whispered, slowly shaking her head in denial. "D, please say  
that you're lying. I know my father, I know what a noble and honorable man he  
is, how he himself taught me the values of honor and integrity. D, please...."

"I have no doubt you are an honorable woman," he said as he gingerly rose  
to his feet, wincing slightly at the soreness in his joints. "Indeed, after  
going to all the trouble of saving one who would kill you, I would have to say  
your sense of honor is beyond reproach. But that doesn't change the fact that  
your father confessed his crimes and gave me my mother's locket as proof of his  
guilt. Whatever you know of him now wasn't what he was back then."

She cast a final glance at the locket in her hand before gently closing  
the cover with a soft click. She looked back up as his shadow fell over her  
hand, finding him standing about a foot away from her. She wordlessly held the  
locket out to him, her eyes following the movement of his hand as he took it  
from her and tucked it away in a small pouch on his belt.

"So now what, D?" she asked softly, looking up to gaze into his eyes. She  
was answered with a stony silence that made her feel incredibly tired for some  
reason. "Are you going to kill me, then?" she wondered aloud, suddenly finding  
herself wondering what she would find once death claimed her. "You do still  
have a weapon on you, don't you?"

He looked into her eyes in silence for a minor eternity before nodding,  
withdrawing the remaining dagger from his belt with a near-silent whisper.

She glanced down at the weapon in his hand and sighed quietly, returning  
her focus to the seemingly weary lines of his face. "A question if I may," she  
asked softly. "Tell me.... did you make my father suffer before killing him?"

"No," he replied quietly, slowly shaking his head. "Even with as much  
pain and suffering as vampires have brought to the world, I have always tried  
to make it as quick and painless as possible. To do otherwise would be to sink  
to their level."

"So I see," she said as she very gently nodded in understanding. "So you  
would do the same for me, then? A quick and simple thrust to the heart to put  
me out of the misery of the world and humankind? I see you would," she said as  
she studied his eyes. "And yet.... you would not enjoy it, would you?"

"There is no pleasure to be had in such a deed," he said. "I only kill  
when I have to."

She paused to turn her head, glancing at the burning disc of the sun as it  
started to touch the horizon. "And you have to kill me, correct?" she asked.  
"Because I am the last dunpeal left in the world?"

"Our blood is cursed," he said softly, his tone causing her to look back  
at him. "This world needs to be free of it once and for all. That means I  
will have to die as well, but it is a sacrifice I've been ready to make since  
the beginning."

"That is.... a sad existence, D," Galen said with a slow shake of her  
head. "In another time I might have tried to open you the possibilities of  
what you are.... no, of what we are. I am a dunpeal like yourself, D. Well,  
almost," she added with a faint hint of a smile. "We both have vampiric blood  
in our veins, but I am not as human as you are."

She waited to see if he would respond, to take the bait and ask her what  
she meant. A very soft sigh rose up from her chest as she was met with only  
empty silence. "No matter, then," she said quietly. "We are the last in the  
world, and I am growing both tired and cold. We can do this one of two ways,  
hunter. You can end this here and now and be rid of me, or you can let me have  
one final moment of peace before I yield my life to you. I am a noble and I  
will not beg for my life, but will instead meet my fate with dignity."

He looked at her in silence before finally speaking. "I'm listening," he  
said in an impassive tone, still holding the dagger in a firm grip.

"My mother's resting place is in a grove of trees to the east," Galen said  
in a calm, measured tone. "It is a five-day excursion by carriage, even longer  
by foot. I ask that you come with me, to give me the honor of seeing her one  
last time in life before I go to join her in death."

His head seemed to tilt at a very slight angle as he regarded her very  
carefully. "A lot can happen in five days," he pointed out in a neutral tone.

"I am a noble, D," she said calmly, staring hard into his eyes. "If you  
believe it to be so, I will make you a pledge. Hold out your dagger."

He remained perfectly motionless for a number of moments before finally  
raising his hand, keeping a firm grip on the dagger as he held the point up to  
the presently orange-hued sky.

"I will make you a promise in blood," she said, reaching out to slowly run  
the palm of her hand over the razor-sharp carbon tip. Tiny drops of her blood  
began to splatter his hand as she spoke. "If you come with me, I will not try  
to run or hide from you, nor will I attempt to attack you. I will not spend my  
last days hiding like a dog, to cower in fear over every shadow that falls over  
my path. Once we reach my mother's grave, you will let me speak to her for a  
moment in private and not attempt to disturb us. I will come to you when I am  
finished, and then you can do what you will with me."

D glanced down at his hand as she fell silent and stepped back. A small  
pool of crimson covered his fist, seeping in between his fingers to drip down  
the hilt and splatter the marble floor. He had long ago learned about what it  
meant to be an honorable person, and what was required to remain so. If there  
was one lesson to be taken to heart, it was that one who lived by the code of  
honor always gave others the chance to prove themselves to be of the same code.

Or in this case, of the same blood.

D said nothing as he lowered his hand and returned the dagger to the empty  
sheath on his belt. He should have cleaned it, as the blade would only get  
disgustingly sticky once the liquid dried, but a deeper part of him knew that  
trying to wipe away a pledge written in blood would be unacceptable.

"I accept," he said simply.

They looked at one another in heavy silence before Galen finally nodded.  
"Very well then. It is almost nightfall, and while that doesn't bother either  
of us, I am in need of a rest before we set out. There is a Hive not too far  
from here, perhaps an hour's ride at most. I can secure us lodging there for  
the night, and perhaps even acquire new weapons. The road we will travel is a  
fairly dangerous one," she added at the sudden change in his expression. "It  
would not be wise to go about unarmed, as bandits care little about whom they  
try to waylay. Or do you doubt my pledge that I will not attack you?"

He said nothing as he turned from her, making his way towards the main  
road where he had left his mount. He would have rode it across the bridge and  
up to the castle gates had he not been warned ahead of time about the numerous  
pitfalls and traps that had lined the causeway.

"D?" she called out in slight confusion as he walked away from her.

"This way," he said simply without turning around.

She paused to stare at his back for a moment before shaking her head to  
herself, wondering just what she was doing this for. She knew she was the last  
of her kind, indeed, the only one of her kind given her unique heritage, and  
that he would eventually kill her. So what would it matter if she died now  
instead of a few days later? But at the same time....

A lot can happen in five days, he had said.

Sighing quietly to herself, she set off after the mysterious hunter who  
would be either her destruction.... or her salvation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------They rode in silence, D holding the reins of his mount with Galen perched  
on the saddle in front of him. She was almost as tall as he was, making it a  
touch difficult to see the road around her. Not that he expected to find much  
of anything at the moment, not on a road near a vampire's castle just after the  
sun had set. Even the woodland animals knew better than that.

"D," Galen spoke up very quietly. She turned her head to one side to look  
at him out of the corner of her eye when he didn't respond. "I think I know  
what happened back there, why I didn't kill you when I had the chance."

She waited for some sign of acknowledgement, sighing very quietly when it  
was apparent that none was forthcoming. "You really don't care, then, do you?"  
she said softly as she returned her focus back to the road ahead.

"I'm listening," D said in a neutral tone.

She carefully twisted around in the saddle to look at him, her liquid-like  
eyes narrowing slightly. "I'll be honest, I haven't met many other dunpeals  
before," she said in a level tone. "The few that I ran across were open and  
talkative about themselves, however, despite the situation they were in. Why  
do you remain so.... closed to others?"

She took the time to study his face as she waited for a response, knowing  
that one would probably not be forthcoming. "I'll admit I was.... upset about  
my father's death when I attacked you," she continued in a level tone. "He was  
all that I had after my mother passed away from an illness her body couldn't  
cope with. When the first tremor hit the bridge and I had the advantage, I was  
aiming for your heart when I suddenly realized that if I killed you.... I would  
truly be alone in the world."

Her breath suddenly caught in her throat as he blinked, the full force of  
his gaze seeming to bore straight into her very soul as he looked at her. "I  
don't know what made me aim for your stomach instead of dropping the weapon,"  
she said very quietly. "I guess I.... I wanted you to suffer a little, to make  
you bleed for what you did to my father." She seemed to hesitate before adding  
in a respectful voice, "I didn't think my rapier could be destroyed like that.  
You must be even stronger than the legends say."

"So why did you save me?" he asked quietly.

She sighed and looked away, studying the gloom of the terrain. "When the  
bridge collapsed and you started to fall.... all I could think of was how alone  
I would be if I were truly the last dunpeal. I can handle being unique.... but  
I don't think I could handle being the last. Part of the reason I do not fear  
my death at your hand," she added, looking back at him. "You would then be the  
last, not me. Selfishness on my part, perhaps, but I don't want that burden on  
my conscience or my soul."

He remained silent as he looked at her, studying the soft contours of her  
face as she had studied him. She appeared to be young, even for one who would  
not age with the centuries. Her hair was a curious mixture of blue and green,  
seeming to vary within each individual strand to give her beauty a distinctly  
exotic look. Her irises didn't appear to have the subtle flaws that most other  
eyes had, seeming to be a ring of bluish-green liquid instead of muscle. Her  
lips were a pale blue color, whether naturally or from lipstick he wasn't able  
to tell. They appeared to be soft and inviting, however, and in another world  
he might have even been tempted to find out for himself....

"D?" she said very softly, drawing his attention back up to the look in  
her eyes. "I know I saved your life for my own reasons, and honor forbids me  
from making demands on you because of it.... but I would still like to ask you  
to open up to me. We are the last of our kind, you and I, and I would like to  
know more about you before I surrender my life. I swear on my honor that all  
that is said, whatever secrets you share with me, will remain between the both  
of us. Maybe being a woman makes me sentimental, but.... is it truly too much  
to ask that we get to know one another in our final hours of existence?"

She looked up at him intently, trying to find even the slightest hint that  
her words were reaching him, that she was breaking through the wall of silent  
isolation. She was genuinely curious about him, a man she had heard whispered  
in taverns and enclaves as a living legend. Every single one had spoken of his  
preference for silence, but she had also heard a few whispers about times in  
which a woman had gotten him to take off the armor, not just the heavy shroud  
of silence but the physical armor that protected his body as well....

((D, we have company,)) a soft voice whispered around them, causing Galen to  
to blink hard and almost fall out of the saddle.

"Who said that?" she demanded as she righted herself and peered around the  
landscape. Her right hand automatically dropped to her belt, a chill creeping  
through her body a moment later as she remembered that her 'sidekick' had been  
destroyed in the fight on the bridge.

D ignored her as he gently tugged on the reins, causing the mount to stop.  
He looked around the landscape with a critical eye, trying to either see or  
hear whatever was upsetting the thing this time. He couldn't see anything in  
the gloom that might have posed a threat, but the super-quiet whispering sounds  
that reached his ears....

"Up ahead," D said quietly, trying to decide if there were two or three  
creatures lying in wait.

"Give me the reins," Galen said quietly, reaching up to grab the leather  
straps just above his hands. "We're almost at the Hive. It will look better  
if I'm holding the reins as they should know me."

He looked down at her, studying the points on her ears before her head  
twisted around to look back at him. Their eyes met in heavy silence for a few  
seconds before he relaxed his grip, allowing her to take control of the reins.

She nodded her head slightly at him and flicked the reins, gently urging  
the mount back into casual motion. They continued to ride on in silence for a  
few hundred yards before a guttural growl cut across the still air, causing her  
to tug sharply on the reins.

D remained perfectly still as Galen lifted her head up and called back to  
the darkness. Her voice seemed to be inhuman, clicking and rasping with a very  
strong metallic undertone as she spoke in a language he had never heard before.  
He thought he could see one of the sentries, barely able to discern the outline  
of the bestial creature against the inky backdrop of the shadows. Even knowing  
where it was, he still couldn't make out any features as it snarled back a soft  
reply before completely vanishing into the darkness.

A soft laugh rose up from Galen's throat as she nudged the mount forward,  
slowly proceeding down the trail. "Welcome to the Cha'laka Hive," she said in  
a quiet tone as the air suddenly rippled in front of them.

D blinked hard as the shimmering veil parted, revealing what appeared to  
be a mound-like structure built into the side of a small hill. In all of the  
centuries of his travels around the planet, he couldn't remember seeing any  
sort of structure like it. As they drew closer, he realized that it was a city  
of sorts, a collection of small huts and buildings all linked by a series of  
small bridges and causeways.

((D?)) the thing in his hand suddenly spoke up. ((I've suddenly got a bad  
feeling about this place.))

The horse came to a gentle halt as Galen tugged on the reins, making sure  
it had stopped moving before twisting around in the saddle to give him a very  
piercing look. "Alright, what keeps talking like that?" she demanded in a low  
tone. Her eyebrows arched clear up to her hairline as D simply raised his left  
hand, letting her see the wrinkled face embedded in his palm.

((That would be me,)) it said, turning slightly to give D an uneasy look.

"Oh, I see now," she said, nodding her head as a great number of puzzle  
pieces suddenly fell into place. "If he has your power to draw on, that would  
explain an awful lot about what the legends have said. Interesting that nobody  
ever thought of this as a possible explanation before," she mused.

"You know what this is?" D inquired with a small measure of disbelief.

She paused before looking up at him. "It's rare to encounter symbiots on  
sentient beings, seeing how they usually are disposed of as soon as they're  
discovered," she said carefully. "But yes, I've met a couple of them before."

"Do you know how to get rid of them?" D immediately asked, prompting a  
very soft grunt of protest from the thing. He made a fist to keep it quiet,  
keeping his focus on Galen and trying not to react to the possibility of being  
able to be free of it once and for all. Not that he truly wished to have it  
excised from his hand, as it had been a literal life-saver on more occasions  
than he could count, but he would still feel better if he had that knowledge  
available in case of a true emergency.

"You're kidding, right?" she said, giving him an incredulous look. Her  
eyes widened with disbelief when she realized that he was being serious. "You  
mean you've had that with you for all this time and you never figured out how  
you could get rid of it?"

((Uh, excuse me....)) it tried to protest before being silenced as D's fist  
tightened even further.

"It's never been an urgent priority," he said in an absolutely flat tone,  
giving her a look that some might have interpreted as dangerous or threatening.

She looked back at him for a moment before slowly shaking her head, still  
not fully believing this one. "It's simple, D," she said in as neutral a tone  
as she could manage. "Just drown it. Immersion in a bucket won't work, as it  
will just swallow up the water. Probably the bucket, too, if it panics," she  
added as an after-thought. "Anyway, just go for a swim in a lake or other body  
of water too big for it to absorb. Twenty minutes should be enough. It might  
take a day or two for it to decay to the point where you can remove it without  
harm. It'll leave a mark on your skin, of course, but they're almost entirely  
astral in nature so you won't have to worry about losing anything inside you."

D just stared at her in disbelief, not believing that he had overlooked  
something as patently obvious as that. How many times had it complained about  
being choked or unable to breathe? And he never made the connection? It was  
enough to make him consider beating his head against a tree as punishment for  
being so utterly stupid for all these centuries....

Galen just laughed very softly to herself as she turned around and flicked  
the reins once again. "You're welcome, D," she said as she guided the mount  
over to a small barn at the very edge of the Hive.

D looked around as they dismounted, letting a young man take care of the  
horse. The stable boy appeared to be human, and if D had to guess he would say  
that he was either a bandit or a gypsy. Both tended to show up in the oddest  
of places and in the strangest of company. D tossed him a coin as payment,  
receiving a grateful nod of thanks in return.

"This way," Galen said, making a gesture to a narrow spiral staircase. D  
stood back, letting her go first up the wooden structure before attempting to  
follow her. An icy chill was crawling down his spine as he continued to look  
around the city, knowing that something was out of place. It finally sank in  
a moment later as they reached one of the causeways, edging aside to let a pair  
of disfigured creatures head towards the stable staircase.

The entire population of the city were mutants.

Some of them seemed human from a distance, and a few of them could even be  
mistaken for a full human up close. Most had mutations that were obvious, one  
possessing an excess of body hair that resembled fur, several others having  
wings of assorted shapes and sizes. A number boasted teeth that were too large  
for their mouths, prominent fangs jutting out at odd angles.

He looked up as he felt a touch on his wrist, finding Galen giving him a  
slightly impatient look. "You can go play tourist later," she chided him as  
she gestured to a large nearby tavern. "Right now, we should see if we can get  
a room for the night. This way," she said as she let go of him, making her way  
across the causeway.

He followed her in silence, still thinking about the nature of the city.  
Mutants had been around since the early days, back when the vampires summoned  
the red moon from another world to bring chaos to this one. A sort of truce  
existed between the two, the vampires largely leaving the mutants alone in  
exchange for their protection and servitude. The mutants had in turn taken  
great pains to keep a low profile with respects to everything and everyone  
else, living in the shadows to try to avoid drawing the destructive attentions  
of humans or other predators that fed on human-like creatures.

It amazed him to finally discover how they did it, building small cities  
that were scattered across the land to be hidden behind large veils of secrecy.  
He couldn't have said for sure if it was the powers of darkness or the legacy  
technology of the ancient human civilizations that allowed an entire city to  
bend light around it, hiding it from all but the most keen of observers. And  
even then, those smart enough to find it would likely be just as smart enough  
to know that disturbing the city's residents would be most unwise....

Had he not known he was in a city of mutants, he would have thought he was  
stepping into any one of the countless taverns in a random human city. A hazy  
cloud of cigarette and herbal smoke hung from the ceiling, tainting the air  
with the scent of at least six different kinds of dried plant material. A bar  
took up the back wall of the tavern while dozens of patrons were spread out  
among the array of randomly scattered and dimly-lit tables. The level of noise  
was low, little more than a collection of muted conversations, soft clinks of  
bottles against glass, and the sounds of various mugs being drained of their  
respective contents. A simple railed staircase was off to one side, leading  
up to a second-story of bedrooms.

The low buzz of conversation dropped even lower as he followed Galen over  
to the bar, remaining a few paces away as she motioned to the bartender. He  
put the mug he was polishing down and leaned over to her, making a series of  
noises that D thought a beached whale might have made as it struggled to retain  
a hold on life.

He edged closer as Galen started to reply, her voice taking on the same  
clicking, rasping metallic aspect he had heard earlier. She went on for a few  
seconds before falling silent, obviously waiting for the bartender to reply.  
D remained motionless as the bartender gave him a blatantly suspicious look,  
snarling something to Galen before starting to turn away.

D's hand dropped down to his dagger as Galen reached out to grab the front  
of the bartender's shirt. The skin of her hand suddenly turned a dark brown  
color as her fingers began to curl inward, taking on a very rough and bark-like  
appearance. A deep red glow appeared in her eyes as they started to change  
shape, acquiring a series of tiny divisions that resembled the facets in the  
compound eyes of most insects. A very rapid clicking noise emanated from her  
throat, dropping away to a mere whisper of a rattle after a few moments.

The bartender blinked hard and glanced over at D, seeming to be more than  
a little uneasy at the situation. He looked back at Galen and made a series of  
deep moans, almost hauntingly beautiful in their timbre.

((He doesn't think you are what I say you are,)) Galen said to D, her voice  
distorted almost to the point of incomprehension. ((Show him your heritage.))

It took him a moment to realize what she was asking. He nodded and moved  
over to the bar, reaching inward to unlock the darkest part of his soul. His  
vision took on a blue cast a moment later as his eyes began to luminesce, the  
edges of his mouth parting as his incisors elongated into fangs.

The bartender looked at him in silence before grunting quietly to himself,  
reaching up to yank his collar free from Galen's grip. He glanced back at her  
and made a low noise, his tone seeming to indicate he wasn't too impressed.

D glanced down at his hand as it suddenly began wriggling fiercely. He  
turned his palm up to look at the thing, pausing as it looked up at him with an  
odd smile before it winked at him. He hesitated for a moment before he nodded  
and brought his hand up, turning it around to face the bartender.

The bartender paused and cast a very suspicious glance at him, blinking  
fairly hard as he suddenly saw the wrinkles open up to form a sort of face. He  
squinted as he peered closer, making a very low growling noise to it. He was  
rewarded with a rather sharp belch from the odd face, causing him to jerk back  
in surprise. He seemed to alternate his gaze between D, Galen, and the thing  
before beginning to laugh to himself.

D glanced up to find Galen giving him a truly odd look, the lines of her  
face distorted into something that looked vaguely insectoid. It was probably  
her eyes that made the most impression on him, now clearly a multi-faceted red  
hue as a single blue-green eyebrow was raised in curiosity.

She smirked as D remained motionless, turning her attention back to the  
still-chuckling bartender. He said something else to her, causing her to blink  
in surprise before nodding. She reached into her belt to produce a number of  
coins, laying them out in a neat pile before him. His hand seemed to casually  
pass over them, the coins vanishing to be replaced with a simple room key.

She waited until her hands and face had returned to normal before replying  
with a simple thanks, scooping up the key and turning to face D. "Let's go,"  
she said simply as she headed for the staircase, casting a quick glance over  
her shoulder to make sure he was following her.

The stairs had obviously seen better days, creaking unsteadily as they  
were used. They were a lot firmer than they sounded, however, as there was  
very little give as the pair of dunpeals reached the second floor. Galen cast  
a quick glance at the number etched into the key before counting doors, finally  
reaching the one she sought. The lock seemed to briefly resist the key before  
yielding, the door opening with a muted creak that would have made them wince  
in pain had it been any louder.

D said nothing as he followed her, stopping just inside the doorway to  
look around the room. It obviously wasn't a high-quality establishment, but  
nothing was damaged or broken. The wooden ceiling was a little low for his  
tastes, almost low enough for the lone light fixture to be an impact hazard if  
he wasn't paying attention. The towels and linens appeared to have been washed  
recently, suggesting that at least some attempt was made at keeping the room in  
an acceptably clean condition. There was, however, one detail that promptly  
leapt out at him as being a potentially significant problem....

"Something wrong?" Galen inquired as she closed the door, finding herself  
on the receiving end of a distinctly unamused look. She followed his gaze as  
he turned back around, suddenly realizing what was bothering him. "Oh, that,"  
she said with a faint smile as she studied the single mattress. "I thought it  
would have raised too many suspicions if I asked for a double."

"What did you tell him?" D asked quietly, trying to decide which corner of  
the room looked to be the most comfortable.

"Just that you and I were passing through together," she said casually, a  
hint of a smile crossing her face. "Don't worry, hunter, you will not have to  
share a bed with me."

D said nothing as he watched her cross the room, sitting down on the edge  
of the bed. She looked up at him for a moment before smiling gently, reaching  
down to remove her calf-length boots. They both fell free after a few moments  
of tugging, allowing her to stretch her legs out and wiggle her bare toes. She  
paused and looked back up at him, studying his expression before leaning back  
on her elbows in what might have been termed a casually seductive pose.

"Something on your mind, D?" she asked in a light, almost coy tone.

"You have mutant blood in your veins, don't you?" he finally said.

She frowned as she sat up straight, giving him a moderate look. "If my  
grandmother was still around to hear you say it like that, she would have put  
you through the floor," she said in a faintly edged tone. "As I said earlier,  
I am every bit a vampire as you are, D, but only half as human. My grandfather  
was a human, of course, but my grandmother was one of the Barbarois."

D blinked at the confession, slowly nodding in understanding at everything  
suddenly made sense to him. Her beauty was exotic, but he had thought it was  
a little too exotic to be from purely human or vampiric origins. Her ability  
to assume an insectoid form, or at least part of it, had confused him until he  
realized that it wasn't part of her heritage as a dunpeal, but instead part of  
her Barbaroi heritage. They were technically mutants as well, but had chosen  
to live in a self-imposed isolation from the rest of their kind. An isolation  
that they all too vigorously defended against intruders....

I can handle being unique, she had said, but I don't think I could handle  
being the last.

"I didn't think it was possible for any of the Barbarois to have children  
with humans," he said quietly, remaining in place while she resumed stretching  
her shapely legs out. Her skin was every bit as pale as his, no doubt due to  
her instinctive desire to avoid excessive sun exposure, but appeared to be both  
silky smooth and utterly flawless. It was the kind of perfection that made  
men's heads turn, and as he discovered in the not-too-distant past, he wasn't  
truly above giving such beauty a second look either.

"That's what everyone said," Galen replied with a slow nod. "Including my  
grandmother," she added with a sly smile. "She and the others celebrated my  
mother's birth whole-heartedly, viewing it as nothing short of a miracle. I'm  
not entirely sure how or when my father encountered my mother, as neither one  
of them seemed to want to talk about it, but I'm sure you're intelligent enough  
to figure out how things eventually played out."

He said nothing as she stood up and slowly walked over to him, her bare  
feet making only the lightest of sounds on the floor. "I don't suppose you'll  
tell me about your parents?" she mused, stopping only a few feet away from him.  
"I'm sure the son of the Vampire King and his human bride would have a most  
interesting tale to tell about his birth...."

She looked up at him, her mood slowly evaporating as she only encountered  
a stony silence. "Very well, D," she sighed softly as she turned her back.  
"I will not force you to open up to me.... even though I wish you would," she  
added in a very soft tone, casting a glance over her shoulder. "Should you  
wish to wander about the city, you are free to do so. Few of them would ever  
consider bothering a dunpeal, but I would not suggest you advertise your nature  
as a hunter. The bartender was amused by your symbiot, and so you may find  
that others would likewise be more inclined to help you. Providing you don't  
give them the silent treatment as well," she added gently.

She reached up to the ceiling, her hands slowly turning into bark-like  
claws. She grasped the edges of the wooden support beam and swung her body  
forward, her feet likewise becoming gnarled as she used them to get a second  
grip on the ceiling. The black satin cape around her shoulders hung limply  
towards the ground, barely brushing against the mane of blue-green hair that  
likewise hung free from her head.

She hugged the ceiling tighter, adjusting her grip several times until she  
was almost pressed flat against the wooden beam. She relaxed her arms enough  
to tilt her head back, looking into his eyes with a soft smile on her face.  
"You may wake me whenever you wish once the sun rises," she said softly, only  
a faint hint of red visible in her eyes. "I only ask that you do so gently.  
Granted I am not the lightest of sleepers, but a simple touch should be enough  
to rouse me. Sleep well, D," she said, her voice dropping to a soft whisper.

D watched with mild interest as she hugged the ceiling again. The black  
cape started to shimmer like a living being before turning a mottled brown hue,  
seeming to mimic the pattern of bark on some trees. The fabric suddenly began  
to move upward, spreading out and molding against her body to envelop it as  
completely as it could. A series of snapping and cracking sound filled the air  
a moment later as it appeared to harden, taking on the consistency of a wooden  
cocoon that would have perfectly blended in with a tree.

((Okay, now there's something you don't see every day,)) it said quietly as  
D studied the cocoon-like object attached to the ceiling. The only thing that  
stood out were several inches of her blue-green hair, hanging down from the top  
end of the cocoon like some sort of lure. ((I'll bet she doesn't have a problem  
finding shelter on a camping trip. Barbaroi blood, eh?))

"Leave her alone," D said quietly without thinking. He paused a moment  
later to wonder why he had just said that, trying to determine if it had been  
an instinct of some sort.

The thing remained quiet for a few moments before speaking up again. ((D,  
just what the hell is going on?)) it asked in an unusually cautious tone. ((One  
minute she's trying to run you through and you're aiming to carve her heart out  
with a dagger.... and I must say, going up against a rapier like that was not  
very bright.... then all of a sudden you two start planning for a five-day trip  
across the country like you're a pair of friends? Did I miss something here?  
I mean, I can see the death of her father loosening one of her screws, but what  
the hell are you doing? You leave a wad of brain-matter on the floor when you  
killed Count Niles or what?))

"Enough," he said quietly, spotting the room key on the bed. He made his  
way over to retrieve it, picking it up before heading back towards the door.

((Hey, wait,)) it protested as D reached for the door. ((What are you doing?  
We're alone in a city of mutants, where are you going?))

"Shopping," he said calmly as he opened the door.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The sounds of the tavern quieted down as he descended the stairs, finding  
himself on the receiving end of a number of very discreet and casual glances.  
He ignored them as he made his way towards the door, intent on finding someone  
who could help him acquire a new sword. He made it halfway across the room  
before coming to a halt as something abruptly coiled around his ankle.

"Well, well," a husky voice said as D looked down to find the tail of a  
very large snake gently wrapped around his leg. He followed the muscular coil  
along the floor and found himself looking at what was commonly referred to as  
a lamia. The lower half of her body was that of a massive snake, while the  
rest of her was that of a humanoid woman. Her hair and eyes were a deep shade  
of forest green, her modesty somewhat preserved a small and rather flimsy dark  
blue strip of fabric criss-crossing her ample chest.

"That was a rather quick trip upstairs, now wasn't it?" the lamia purred  
as she leaned back in her chair, openly studying him. "Don't tell me that the  
stories of a dunpeal's stamina were wrong...."

D paused and cast a sidelong glance at the other person at the table. He  
knew a fellow hunter when he met one, most of her face kept in shadow by the  
wide brim of her hat. A black leather bracer was tied to her left wrist, a  
number of scars visible on the skin that was left exposed. She seemed to be  
fully human at first glance, but he wasn't about to rule out possessing any of  
mutant abilities of her own. She didn't appear to be interested in what was  
going on, quietly sipping on a rather large mug of pale orange beer.

"She had a long day and needed to rest," D said quietly to the lamia as he  
looked back at her. "Nothing more."

The snake-woman nodded soberly, very gently squeezing his leg with her  
tail. "I can imagine, having just lost her father a few hours ago. News does  
travel fast in these parts," she added coyly. The look on her face seemed to  
harden slightly as she leaned forward. "You wouldn't happen to know anything  
about that, would you, dunpeal?"

D could feel the thing in his hand suddenly take a very discreet breath,  
seeming to tense up slightly. "She wanted to go visit her mother," he said  
calmly, his expression never changing. "I'm escorting her there."

The lamia seemed to accept his explanation as she leaned back, her tail  
still gently rubbing and squeezing his leg. "Yes, I imagine she would want to  
spend some time with her after what just happened. Not to be nosing in your  
business, my friend, but I couldn't help but notice earlier that you have a  
symbiot with you. May I take a look at it?"

He said nothing as he looked at her, briefly casting another glance at her  
hunter companion. He wasn't sure what kind of hunter she was, but the marks on  
her arm said that whatever it was apparently didn't go down easily or without  
a serious fight. He looked back at the lamia to find a somewhat sultry look on  
her face as she leaned forward once again, her tail not so much squeezing his  
leg as gently massaging it.

"I happen to have one of my own, you see," she explained coyly. "It's not  
the best friend to have, but I haven't really decided if I want to try to get  
rid of it or not. That's why I want to study yours for a moment, just to do a  
bit of a comparison. What do you say, dunpeal? I'll show you mine if you show  
me yours," she offered, her voice turning husky.

D paused for a moment as the other hunter seemed to come dangerously close  
to venting her beer out her nose. She recovered so quickly that he might not  
have suspected she had reacted to anything if his hearing wasn't so sensitive.

The thing in his hand twitched gently, causing him to look down at it.  
Silently sighing to himself, he raised his arm to give the lamia a look at his  
palm. He remained perfectly still as she reached out, taking his hand in a  
very light and gentle grip to make sure she wouldn't accidentally scratch him  
with her razor-like fingernails.

"So what have we here?" she mused quietly, studying the wrinkles.

((Hi,)) it replied in a neutral tone, calmly looking back at her.

"Oh, my," she said, her eyebrows arching up in surprise. "You seem to be  
fairly articulate. I might even think you were intelligent."

((Why wouldn't I be?)) it inquired in a wary tone. ((I don't want to sound  
arrogant by claiming to be a genius or anything, but we're not exactly dumb as  
fence-posts, you know.))

She paused and glanced up at D before sighing wistfully. "I guess I must  
have picked up a reject, then," she said as she leaned back, her other hand  
coming up to casually bare her melon-sized breast.

D's eyebrows arched up a fraction of a millimeter as he studied the soft  
curves of her breast, able to see the wrinkles for what they were. The eyes  
were positioned on either side of her hardening nipple, set just low enough to  
put the areola in the middle of what passed for its forehead. The mouth was  
still concealed from his angle, however, and it was only with extreme caution  
that he allowed her to pull his hand closer to her feminine flesh.

((Hey there,)) D's symbiot said carefully.

The entire base of her breast suddenly opened up, revealing a gaping maw  
lined with dozens of very sharp-looking teeth. A muted roar billowed out from  
the opened mouth, bathing D's palm in a blast of hot air. The sound continued  
for a few moments before falling silent, the two 'lips' closing together to  
return her breast to its normal plump shape.

((Okay, we're done here,)) the thing in his hand said in as calm a tone as  
it could manage. The attempt at casualness didn't fool anyone, however, as the  
lamia started to laugh as she tugged the fabric back over her breast.

"I see what you mean," D said in a moderate tone, not overly impressed by  
either the display of flesh or the other symbiot.

"It's not that bad," the lamia purred gently. "He likes it when someone  
pets him real slow and gentle-like. Other than that, however...." She paused  
to think about it before shrugging in dismissal, absently squeezing his leg  
once again before uncoiling her tail. "So I take it you're looking to find a  
sword, dunpeal?" she inquired idly as D started to turn away.

He paused and looked back at her, casting yet another brief glance at the  
female hunter still silently sipping her beer. The soft chuckle of the lamia  
drew his attention back to her, finding a look of remote amusement crossing her  
face. "That one is just a little obvious, you know," she explained, making a  
gesture to his back. "After all, who walks around with an empty sword scabbard  
for the fun of it? Or, it seems, a less than full belt," she added with a very  
low purr as she looked at his waist. "Mmm, but you do seem to be packing your  
fair share of equipment, however...."

He decided to skip that last comment entirely. "Do you know where I can  
find a weaponsmith?" he asked calmly, pointedly ignoring the faint shudders  
still emanating from his left hand.

The lamia chuckled and gestured to the tavern exit behind her. "Over the  
bridge on the right, third shop on the left-hand side. He's a gruff one, but  
he'll deal with you if you have the right reference. Tell him Lani sent you,"  
she added with a delicate purr.

"Thank you," D said quietly as he turned to leave again.

"You do have a name, don't you?" Lani asked lightly, leaning back in her  
chair as she tickled his lower thigh with the tip of her tail. "I would hate  
to think I wouldn't have anything to remember someone like you by...."

He paused to glance over at the other hunter, something in the back of his  
mind warning him that he should keep an eye on her for some unknown reason. He  
glanced back at the patiently-waiting lamia before drawing in a soft breath to  
reply. "D," he said simply.

Both he and Lani turned to look as the mug of beer very quietly hit the  
table, the exposed part of the hunter's skin turning pale. She remained very  
still before slowly lifting her head up, a pair of dark purple eyes looking out  
from under the brim of her hat. The hunters looked at one another in silence  
before she finally drew a breath.

"You saved my mother," she said very quietly. "Hazel Averness of Cyan."

D nodded as the name registered, having freed her from a vampire's castle  
a number of years ago. She hadn't been the only captive he had broken out of  
the dark dungeon that early morning, of course, but she was the only one who  
had approached him later when he was getting ready to leave. He still hadn't  
figured out why she did so, but he allowed himself to keep the other promise he  
had made to Leila....

"Carmen, you simply amaze me sometimes," Lani said with a soft chuckle,  
shaking her head to herself. "You never told me anything like that had ever  
happened to your mother. That should be a very interesting story to hear."

Carmen ignored the lamia and continued to stare at D. "Thank you," she  
finally said.

D said nothing, simply nodding his head in mutual understanding before  
turning to leave. He almost sighed in frustration as he felt a hand take hold  
of his wrist, causing him to turn back and face the lamia.

"One more thing, my friend," Lani said very quietly. "If you are who you  
say you are, I'm afraid your reputation very much precedes you. I can't say I  
can imagine anyone's mug of ale being watered down by tears over the loss of  
Count Niles, may his dark soul rest in peace. Most of us remember what a nasty  
bastard he was before the birth of his youngest daughter."

She tugged very gently on his wrist as she leaned closer to him, her voice  
dropping a few decibels. "However, almost everyone here happens to like Galen.  
Most of the people in this city would be.... personally displeased if anything  
were to happen to her while under your care." She let go of him and leaned  
back, idly rubbing the inside of his leg with her tail. "You may consider that  
a friendly warning, dunpeal. One symbiot-host to another," she added with a  
casual gesture.

"Thank you for the warning," D replied calmly. He paused for a moment  
before adding, "And your help."

"Anytime, dunpeal," Lani purred suggestively, turning to watch him as he  
passed by. "Anytime.... So that's the legend," he heard her fading voice say  
as headed for the door. "I can see they weren't exaggerating much. Tell me,  
Carmen, why can't I snag a man like that, even if only for a few hours? Galen  
is in for a very, very interesting time if she's traveling with him...."

He waited until he left the tavern and closed the door behind him before  
glancing down at his hand. It took a moment for the thing to realize it was  
being looked at, the wrinkles eventually parting to expose its face.

((What?)) it said in a slightly defensive tone. It received only silence in  
reply and gave D a disturbed look. ((What?)) it repeated.

"Nothing," D said in a perfectly neutral tone as he lowered his hand and  
looked around, spotting the building that he had been told about. He made his  
way across the causeway, trying to ignore the thing as it rambled on.

((Look, that thing wasn't in your face, okay?)) it started to babble at a  
rapid pace. ((I mean, c'mon.... it's no worse than you looking into the face of  
another dunpeal and not liking what you see. What a brutish lout, not even  
capable of talking like a civilized being. I mean, granted we're not the most  
sentient of creatures roaming this godforsaken planet, but we're not all boors,  
you know. Most of us are smarter than a rock in a box. You see where it had  
attached itself? Damn, maybe you should be thanking me that I didn't try to  
embed myself in your nuts or something. Now there's a boring place to try to  
spend a few hundred years.... OW! Hey, that was just a joke! Ow, ow, ow!))

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The man behind the counter looked up as D entered the small metal shop,  
appraising him with a very critical eye. They looked at one another for a few  
moments before the weaponsmith spat into the corner, a sharp hiss rising up as  
the spittle encountered something extremely hot.

"Go away, I'm busy," he growled as he turned back to his anvil.

"Lani said you could help," D said calmly.

The smith paused and cast another dark look over his shoulder. He seemed  
to take his time in studying the size of the empty scabbard before he made a  
curt gesture with his chin. "Fourth cabinet," he said before turning his back  
to the hunter.

D said nothing as he crossed the room, absently glancing at the various  
types of weapons on display. The majority of them were swords of all shapes  
and sizes, but more than a few projectile weapons in various states of repair  
were scattered among the blades.

The rusted hinges on the cabinet protested loudly as D opened the door,  
finding himself face-to-face with at least six swords of the general variety  
that he had come to favor. He took his time in examining each one, knowing  
that whichever one he chose would likely be with him for a long time to come.

((D?)) it suddenly spoke up quietly. ((That fourth one looks like it was  
forged by the same smith as the one you acquired from that island vampire. It  
feels pretty solid to me, although you'll need to tighten that hilt a little.))

He said nothing for a moment, his mind automatically flashing back to that  
particular battle. Killing that vampire had cost him his sword, much in the  
same way that killing Count Magnus Lee had, and so he had selected a new blade  
from the wall collection on his way out. The balance had been superb and the  
edge extremely keen, serving him remarkably well until it was destroyed by the  
acidic blood of a particularly nasty mutant....

The hilt was indeed just a little loose as he picked it up. A few solid  
blows from the smith's hammer would likely correct the issue, leaving him with  
a very well-crafted and balanced sword. He could already imagine the comfort  
of its weight on his back as he carried it over to the smith, chiding himself  
for such an emotional weakness but understanding it nonetheless. He was almost  
at the counter when a basket of smaller weapons caught his eye, causing him to  
stop and examine the assortment of knives and daggers.

((You're like a kid in a toy store sometimes, you know that?)) the thing in  
his hand spoke up half an hour later as D finally narrowed his choices down to  
two daggers. Both were crafted to be thrown, possessing an exceptional sense  
of balance and a perfect center of gravity. ((Poking with this one, playing  
with that one.... just pick one, D. We both know you'll just use it to blow a  
bloody hole through some ugly critter somewhere along the line, so looks won't  
really matter too much.))

D made a very soft noise to himself as he realized the simple truth behind  
its words. He put the rune-carved blade back and selected the less decorated  
dagger, adorned with a simple sigil-stamp at the base to denote who might have  
made it at one point in time. He then reached up, putting both the sword and  
the dagger on the counter.

The smith barely glanced over his shoulder before returning to his work,  
pumping the bellows up to heat a length of metal. "Two hundred thousand," he  
said flatly.

"The sword hilt needs to be tightened," D spoke up as he reached for his  
coin pouch. He paused for a moment as the smith turned around again, a dark  
scowl marring his face. He watched impassively as the smith reached for the  
sword, spitting in disgust as he felt the hilt rattle slightly.

"Bad recasting," he snarled, more to himself than to D. "Five minutes,"  
he said slightly louder, carrying the blade over to his forge and laying it  
flat on the anvil.

D allowed his attention to wander around the room as the sound of heavy  
hammering filled the air, idly studying the other weapons that were for sale.  
He studied the hilt of what was known as a sun-sword, a legacy weapon that was  
both extremely powerful and extremely dangerous to use. They were rare to find  
these days, as few had the technology and resources to maintain the intense  
plasma fields they generated when switched on. He had used a sun-sword himself  
once, a very long time ago back when....

((Hey,)) it protested quietly as D suddenly shook his head, trying to dispel  
the sudden resurgence of memories. ((Got another gnat in your ear or what?))

He said nothing as he browsed the rest of the weapon cases and displays,  
trying to keep his mind empty. He paused as something seemed to leap out at  
him, causing him to back-track half a step to study the weapon.

((Oh, now that's nice,)) it cooed as D picked up the rapier, testing it for  
balance. ((Let me get a closer look, eh? Oh.... ohhhhh, D, this is a nice  
blade. You don't see many platinum-silver amalgams like this. Hmm, it feels  
like it might even have a titanium filament as a core. Heh, let's see you try  
to break that with a carbon dagger.... Uh, D, where are you going? Put it  
back, it probably costs a fortune. I'm serious, with all this platinum? D,  
you've got to be kidding me....))

"How much?" D asked quietly as he held the highly reflective rapier up.

The smith paused in mid-stroke and cast a glance over his shoulder. His  
eyebrows arched up a fraction of an inch as he studied the foil before brining  
the hammer down in a heavy blow that made the entire room resonate briefly.

"Five hundred thousand," the smith said flatly as he brought the repaired  
sword back to the counter and set it down. He watched impassively as D laid  
out a moderate pile of coins on the edge of the counter, scooping up both the  
sword and the dagger.

((D, are you out of your mind?)) it protested as D left the shop, sliding  
the sword into the empty scabbard on his back and tucking the dagger into the  
empty sheath on his belt. He held the rapier by the base of the foil as he  
made his way back along the causeway, heading back to the tavern. ((Two hundred  
thousand for a new sword and dagger I can see, but half a million for a shiny  
pointed chunk of platinum as well? I know we can afford it, but....))

"Enough," he said quietly, casting a casual eye around the mutant city.  
Very few people seemed to care about his presence, glancing up at him for a few  
moments before returning to their business. Those whom he passed as he walked  
seemed to pay him little heed, only moving aside when necessary as strangers do  
when moving past one another.

Very little in the tavern seemed to have changed since he left. Lani and  
Carmen were still at their table, joined by another pair of female mutants in  
a very quiet group discussion. The edge of Carmen's hat lifted up just enough  
to let her see who was walking through the door, her purple eyes meeting his  
for a brief moment before refocusing on her half-empty mug of beer.

He crossed over to the other side of the room, more out of a casual desire  
to avoid being waylaid by Lani again than anything else. He made his way over  
to the stairs and ascended them, the back of his mind warning him that a number  
of the patrons were now watching him. A very brief glance out of the corner of  
his eye told him that nobody was actively posing a threat, however. Whether  
that was because of his reputation or because he was clearly armed he couldn't  
say, but it didn't matter to him either way so long as he was left in peace.

The door lock resisted him as it had Galen earlier, seeming to stick for  
a moment before yielding with a soft creak. He stepped inside and closed the  
door behind him, engaging the lock with a casual twist of his wrist. A quick  
glance around the room told him that everything was exactly as he left it, the  
odd cocoon still securely attached to the ceiling.

((D, you're starting to worry me now,)) it spoke up as he sat down on the  
edge of the bed. His new sword was removed and set aside to lean against the  
small nightstand. The wide-brimmed hat was hung on the hilt a moment later,  
shortly followed by the broad expanse of his cape. His boots came off next,  
moving to place them at the foot of the bed before discovering that Galen's  
boots were already there.

((Do you even know what you're doing?)) it asked as he gently picked up her  
boots and neatly laid them against the wall. The rapier was laid right next  
to them, the super-sharp tip leaving a divot in the floor as it was set down.  
He then returned to the bed and laid his boots out next to his sword, casting  
a wary glance at the switch on the wall. A simple flick plunged the room into  
near-total darkness, only the faintest of light visible from something glowing  
in the bathroom.

((Look, it's a real simple question, D,)) it protested. ((Either you know  
what you're doing or you don't. If you do know what you're doing, great. It  
wouldn't be the first time you had a plan in mind and didn't clue me in until  
the absolute last second. But if you don't know what you're doing, you need  
to tell me so we can try to figure it out.))

For all the times it had annoyed him with such questions, there were just  
as many times when the questions proved to be both useful and insightful. What  
was he doing, anyway? She was the last, the very last one, the final step he  
needed to take to purge the world of the curse of the vampire. Her and him.  
He knew he would welcome the darkness when it finally came, now that his mother  
was truly at peace now....

The voice drifted up to him from his memories, spoken by one whom he had  
long wished would remain silent but yet still desired to hear again. Actually,  
I don't know why you hunt vampires. I understand the need to exterminate them,  
but you never told me why you decided to pick up a sword. Tell me, D, what is  
it that drives you to pursue those blood-thirsty creatures of the night?

Come, another voice echoed in his mind amid the sound of laughter. Let us  
see if my death will silence the screams of your mother....

The voices continued to echo in his mind long after he slid into a state  
of semi-consciousness, not quite awake but not quite asleep, spoken by a woman  
he had come to love in the little time spent with her before her loss and by a  
man he had come to hate in his entire life, a man he had only gotten to know in  
the few minutes before his death. A rather calm, quick and painless death, one  
so unlike the one his mother had suffered through until her body succumbed and  
her soul was allowed to drift free....

The screams that echoed in his dreams were not his mother's, but his own.


	2. Day 1 Cha'laka Hive

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.) 

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

((Day 1 - Cha'laka Hive))

Vampires had a keen interest in the sun, given the fatal consequences of  
being exposed to it. As such, they had evolved over the ages to become aware  
of where the burning disc was in the heavens at all times, even in the depths  
of slumber. The crossing of the horizon, both rising and setting, produced the  
most powerful of vibes in their bodies to warn them when the danger was past,  
or when the danger had just begun.

D awoke as the tingle ran through his blood, just the faintest of shivers  
that he had come to recognize as the feel of the rising sun. His human blood  
protected him from being instantly crisped by the searing light, but even that  
only went so far before the radiance would first incapacitate, then kill him.  
Resting in complete darkness did a lot to restore his vitality, but the only  
true remedy was to rest buried in the comforting embrace of the earth.

He wondered if he had the strength to see the journey to the end before  
having to 'take a dirt nap' as that thing so cavalierly phrased it. He very  
much disliked having to do so, not because of how dirty he got but because it  
keenly reminded him of his darker half.

((Good morning,)) it greeted him with a faint yawn.

D cast a very irked glance at his hand as he began to yawn as well. He  
froze for a split-second as he saw the dark shape on the ceiling, remembering  
after a moment what it was. Or more precisely, who it was.

((Hey, D?)) it said quietly as he rose to his feet, absently stretching out  
a minor kink in his sword arm. A faint twinge in his abdomen reminded him that  
he was still healing. While his regeneration sealed wounds quickly, completely  
repairing all the damaged or destroyed tissue tended to take longer. ((This is  
just one of those hunch things, but you might want to use the can before you  
wake her up. You know how women are when it comes to hogging the bathroom in  
the morning.))

He just stopped and looked down at his hand, wondering just what exactly  
was leading it to believe that he knew much about women as a species, let alone  
being consciously aware of trivial details like their morning bathroom habits.  
He cast a quick glance at the cocoon and headed into the bathroom to take care  
of his own business, deciding it was not worth the effort to argue with it so  
early in the morning.

The cocoon was still in place when he returned, a fact that surprised him  
slightly. He was fairly sure that she had felt the rising of the sun just as  
easily as he had, and the way the plumbing had rattled when he flushed the  
toilet could have woken a three-quarters dead zombie from a slumber. So why  
hadn't she started to stir just yet?

((She wasn't kidding about being a solid sleeper,)) it chuckled softly to  
itself as he reached up to touch the shell-like covering. The satin cape had  
taken on both the color and consistency of soft bark, identical down to the  
smallest detail that he could determine.

Empathic control over inanimate objects such as one's clothing was a skill  
that most vampires could learn, animating them with a simple act of will. The  
degree to which they could be commanded to act depended on the individual skill  
of the noble, which tended to vary quite widely. He himself had the power to  
do so, once causing his own cape to try to hold onto the edge of a crevice as  
it opened up beneath his feet. It required a fair amount of effort to do so,  
however, or at least it did for him, and so he tended to limit his exertions to  
keeping his hat and cloak both in-place and out of the way during combat.

His hand traced the bark-like cape from one end to the other, remembering  
how Meier Link had been able to turn his into steel to use as a weapon. The  
thoughts were thrust from his mind a moment later, not wanting to remember the  
rest of the events that had followed that first discovery of Meier's ability.

His fingertips soon encountered her hair, very lightly brushing across the  
blue-green strands with a feather-light touch. They seemed to be quite soft  
and silky as they brushed against his hand, causing him to repeat the stroking  
motion. A slight frown formed on his face as the impulse registered on his  
conscious mind, a quiet desire to simply touch her hair like that. It was an  
unknown impulse, one that seemed harmless but bothered him nonetheless.

A very soft buzzing sound registered on his ears a moment later, looking  
up to find the cocoon-shell vibrating gently. He held perfectly still, one arm  
still outstretched to touch her hair as he waited to see what she would do. A  
faintly suspicious look crossed his face as the buzzing stopped after a few  
moments, starting back up once his fingertips resumed a slow glide through her  
hair.

He continued to very carefully stroke her hair, the buzzing noise growing  
louder with every passing second until the cape-cocoon fell away from her body  
without warning. He lowered his hand to his side as she arched her back, her  
head moving down until her barely-opened eyes were on level with his.

((Good morning,)) she buzzed very softly, her eyelids taking their time in  
parting to reveal her insect-like eyes. Their shape slowly returned to normal,  
the ridges melting away until the smooth liquidness of her blue-green irises  
were restored. "Or are you not speaking to me for some reason?" she inquired  
in a soft tone.

"Morning," he replied calmly.

"I suppose that's a start," she purred quietly, slowly allowing her arms  
and legs to relax. "I know I asked you to wake me gently, but I certainly  
didn't expect something as gentle as that. You have a nice touch, D."

She carefully let her legs drop to the floor, making sure she had a firm  
sense of balance before releasing the rest of her hold on the ceiling beam. It  
took a moment for her features to return to normal before she turned around,  
giving him a slightly curious look. "That was a compliment, you know," she  
said quietly. "Or do such things make you uncomfortable?"

"The bathroom is yours," he said quietly, moving over to the bed to gather  
his things together. "Feel free to take as long as you need."  
"Thank you, I think," she replied with a raised eyebrow. She glanced over  
at the bathroom door before looking back at him, shaking her head to herself.  
She padded over to the bathroom without another word, gently closing the door  
behind her.

((That wasn't so hard, now was it?)) it spoke up with a faint chuckle.

"What was?" he asked, pausing to cast a slightly wary look at his hand.

((Being nice to her like that. Honestly, how many times have you woken a  
woman up with a gentle caress like that?)) it inquired languidly. He couldn't  
see the smile on its face from his angle, but he could definitely hear it in  
its voice. ((Don't get me wrong, that's a great way to do it, and I'm sure if  
you had stuck around some of your other companions long enough you'd have found  
out for yourself what it was WRRRRF!))

D waited until the thing had fallen silent before taking his hand off of  
the hilt of his sword. He watched as a good three inches of it was removed  
from the palm of his hand, idly wondering where exactly the thing's internals  
were located. He knew it could swallow up a lot of mass when it had to, but  
the question was where did it go?

He busied himself with the task of getting dressed, not overly concerned  
with the answer to the metaphysical question. He had gotten his boots on and  
was in the process of reattaching his cape when he heard the heavy rattling of  
the plumbing, shortly followed by the sound of the bathroom door opening up.

"So that's what that sound was," Galen said with remote amusement. "At  
first I thought it was a toilet being flushed upstairs, until I remembered that  
there isn't a third floor to this thing. I guess they just don't make pipes  
like they used to. So tell me, D, do you....?"

He lifted his head up as her voice suddenly trailed away without warning.  
He turned to follow her gaze, suddenly realizing what she was looking at. He  
cast a quick glance at the expression on her face before returning to the task  
of securing his scabbard on his back.

She moved across the room in perfect silence, very slowly reaching out to  
touch the platinum-and-silver rapier. "D?" she whispered, her eyes dangerously  
wide as she picked it up. "What is this?"

"You said the road ahead was dangerous," he replied calmly, tugging on the  
various clasps and straps that tightly secured his equipment against his body.  
He looked up to find a pair of liquid-like eyes staring hard at him, a look of  
stunned disbelief clearly visible in their depths.

"But...." she stammered for a moment. "But this is.... D, this has to be  
worth a fortune!" she protested. "Why would you do this?"

"You needed a weapon," D said in a neutral tone, not looking up at her.  
He stood up and patted himself down again, a completely unnecessary gesture to  
do but doing it anyway for reasons that he wasn't sure of. He felt a touch on  
his hand and looked up, feeling.... something unknown on the inside at the  
sight of Galen on the verge of tears.

"D.... thank you," she whispered very softly. She looked at the rapier  
for another few moments before sliding it into the empty sheath on her belt,  
moving over to the wall to retrieve her boots. She slipped them on with ease  
and looked back up at him, still clearly taken aback by the gesture. "I'm....  
I'm ready when you are."

He said nothing as he put his hat on, casting one final glance at the room  
to make absolutely sure he wasn't leaving anything behind. He nodded in idle  
satisfaction and headed for the door, turning his head slightly to make sure  
that Galen was following him.

The stairs protested just as loudly as they had the first time, seeming to  
announce to the tavern that someone was coming. It occurred to the both of them  
that perhaps the wooden slats had been made so squeaky for just that purpose,  
warning the bartender and the patrons of their presence.

D cast a sidelong look at Galen as she deftly plucked the room key from  
his hand, handing it to the barkeeper with gentle nod of thanks. She received  
a soft series of moans in reply, accompanied by a gesture to a sort of buffet  
table set against one wall.

"I trust we have time to grab a quick bite for breakfast?" she inquired as  
she rejoined him. She edged past him without waiting for a reply, having by  
now figured out when not to truly expect one.

((A little feisty in the morning, isn't she?)) it mused quietly, drawing a  
dark look from D. ((Oooh, something smells really good in there.... watch out  
for the lamia,)) it added casually.

D took a half-step to the left as he moved past Lani, glancing down at her  
to find a distinctly coy look on her face as he dodged the casual flick of her  
tail. His gaze briefly swept across the table, only slightly surprised to see  
Carmen keeping her company at this early hour. The bracer was still securely  
tied to her left wrist, but from this angle he could see that more marks were  
hidden beneath the black leather.

He idly wondered what had hurt her like that as he turned his attention to  
the breakfast buffet. It wasn't the widest variety he had encountered, but it  
offered enough items he found palatable to make it worthwhile. The majority of  
what ended up on his place were wedges of fruit, not presently in the mood to  
play the guessing game with the slices of meat sitting beneath the warmers.

He glanced down at Galen's plate as he sat across from her, part of him  
remotely amused to see that their choices were almost identical. She glanced  
up at him with a look of light amusement, already working on devouring a small  
cluster of fairly ripe grapes. He ignored her and started to eat, saving a  
small portion of melon for the symbiot.

They both looked up as the tavern door opened, admitting what could only  
be described a wrinkled gnome-like creature that was maybe three feet tall. He  
carried a heavily-decorated staff that was easily twice his height and looked  
to be about twice his age as well. He stood up on his tip-toes to peer around  
the room before spotting the two dunpeals, a faint hint of a smile crossing his  
face as he shuffled over to them.

"Countess Galen," he wheezed in a very soft voice.

"Elder Marken," Galen replied with a nod of her head. She hesitated for  
a moment before adding, "I'm not claiming my father's lands, there is no need  
to call me Countess."

The gnome seemed to shrug in dismissal. "You are a noble regardless, my  
dear," he said in a voice made brittle by age. "Our sympathies are with you  
nonetheless for the loss of your father."

"Thank you," she said with a hint of sadness. She looked up as he made a  
quiet noise to himself and pressed something into her hand. "What's this?" she  
asked as she held up the oddly-shaped trinket.

"A token of our kind," the elder explained. "You will always be welcome  
in Cha'laka Hive, Countess Galen, and with this in your possession the other  
Hives should be willing to grant you sanctuary if you need it. A simple token  
of kindness for all the kindness you've shown us, nothing more."

"Thank you, Elder," Galen said with a smile of genuine gratitude. She  
blinked hard as the gnome then reached out with his staff, thumping it hard  
against D's calf.

"And you, hunter," he said in a slightly sharp tone. "I was told you were  
here in our Hive, but I was not told why."

"Elder, he is...." Galen started to say before being cut off with a sharp  
gesture.

"I wish to hear him speak for himself," the elder said gently, his beady  
eyes still fixed on D. "I do not believe he will attempt to lie, as that is  
not what I've been told of his nature. Speak, hunter," he added.

D lifted his head up to gaze squarely into the elder's face. "Galen has  
asked me to accompany her," he said simply. "I have no interest in doing harm  
to anyone in this city."

The elder raised a bushy eyebrow and snorted quietly to himself. "It is  
not this city I am worried about but Galen," he countered in a low tone. "I  
know what brought you this region, hunter."

"Elder, please," Galen spoke up quietly. "I asked him to come with me as  
an escort. You don't need to worry about me."

"I will worry about whatever I please," the gnome countered with only a  
faint hint of amusement in his eyes. "And for the moment, it pleases me to be  
worried about you. Eh?" he added as D reached down to his belt, drawing one of  
his daggers and holding it out to him. "What is the meaning of this?"

"We have an agreement signed in blood," D said quietly, tilting the blade  
slightly to show the gnome the dried crimson streaks. "She will not come to  
any harm while she travels under my protection."

The elder remained very quiet for a number of moments, studying the dried  
blood on the dagger. "Very well," he said softly as the dagger was returned to  
its sheath. "I shall not worry about you then, my dear. I think I speak for  
the rest of the Hive when I say we will pray for you on your journey, wherever  
it may take you."

Galen smiled gently and leaned over, planting a soft kiss on the gnome's  
bald spot. "Thank you, Elder. I won't ever forget your kindness."

"Safe travels to the both of you," the elder said quietly, casting a final  
glance at D before heading back outside.

Galen shook her head gently as she studied the wooden trinket. "My mother  
had something like this," she said quietly as she tucked it away in a pouch on  
her belt and resumed eating. "It was a token of the Barbarois that would allow  
safe passage through the city. She said that it had been intended for her and  
her alone, given her heritage, and so father had it set into the tombstone when  
she passed away."

She remained silent for several minutes, finishing her breakfast before  
standing up to take the dirty plate over to the kitchen bins. She paused as D  
stood up as well, waiting for him to catch up before moving once again. They  
put their utensils in the bins before heading for the door together.

D paused for a moment in the doorway, casting a glance over his shoulder  
as he felt a tingle on the back of his neck. He swept the room for possible  
threats, his gaze coming to rest on the pair of purple eyes looking at him from  
beneath the edge of a wide-brimmed hat.

((D, what is it?)) it asked very quietly.

D said nothing as Carmen brushed a single fingertip against the brim of  
her hat, tipping it just slightly in what might have been a gesture of either  
farewell or respect. He gave her a subtle nod of recognition, the edge of his  
own hat dipping slightly in a gesture that would have gone unnoticed to anyone  
who wasn't actively paying attention. It didn't matter that he was a hunter of  
vampires while she hunted something else, the unspoken bonds of understanding  
and respect were often the only true feelings of friendship that people like  
them ever had.

((D?)) it prodded carefully as he closed the tavern door behind him. He  
looked up to find Galen giving him a slightly curious look, wondering what had  
delayed him for that brief moment in time.

"Let's go," he said to them both, not in the mood to try to explain the  
unspoken code of respect that existed between hunters.

"D, go ahead and get your mount ready," Galen said as she turned to take  
one of the causeways. "I've got a bit of last-minute shopping to do. Or are  
you going to make me travel for five days without a change of underwear?" she  
added lightly at the faint look of suspicion on his face.

He said nothing as he headed towards the stables, knowing that she would  
not run away while his back was turned. Quite the contrary, he found it to be  
more than a little bothersome that she seemed to be so willing to travel with  
him given yesterday's events. He couldn't readily figure out her motives for  
doing so, save for stalling for time. That made little sense to him, but he  
knew that not everything would at first.

He reached the stables in short order, tossing another coin to the stable  
boy as his mount was promptly fetched and made ready. The horse seemed to be  
both well-rested and in good spirits, the faint scent of fresh oats discernable  
in the air as it breathed.

He almost moved to climb in the saddle when he remembered what Galen was  
doing, moving instead over to the saddle-bags to make some room for a package.  
A moderate space had just been freed up when the sounds of footsteps on the  
spiral staircase reached his ears. He lifted his head up to see Galen making  
her way down to the ground level, holding a bundle that was smaller than he had  
anticipated. The bundle was handed to him without a word and was neatly tucked  
away in the saddle-bag, fitting nicely between a small blanket and a set of  
digging tools.

She waited patiently as he climbed in the saddle, reaching up to accept  
the offered hand and mounting up in front of him. She grabbed the reins before  
he could, nodding her gratitude to the stable boy as he opened the doors.

Both dunpeals inhaled sharply as the full brunt of the morning sun spilled  
through the doors, taking them by surprise. The burning disc was still low on  
the horizon, the optical illusionary effect making it seem twice as large as it  
should be. They weren't sure if the brightness was natural or due to the odd  
lensing effect of the invisibility screen, but neither one wanted to remain out  
in the open for very long.

A simple flick of the reins set the mount into motion at a steady pace,  
first steering southeast to follow the trail. A guard tower stood just inside  
the hazy bubble of light-bending energy that kept the Hive hidden from others,  
manned by a number of heavily-armed mutants. One of them nodded to her as they  
approached, ducking back inside the tower to deactivate their segment of the  
invisibility field.

"I was wondering about that," Galen said quietly as the air rippled before  
them, the intensity of the light dropping by a considerable amount. "I mean,  
I've been inside the Hive at sunrise before, but I never got curious enough to  
ask about what the cloaking field did. I don't know about you, but I'd rather  
not have to put up with another case of heat exposure anytime soon. Do you  
mind if I drive for awhile?" she asked, casting a glance over her shoulder at  
him. "The trail east is pretty obvious, but I know a few places along the way  
to stop and rest your horse."

He glanced up at her before nodding silently, reaching one hand around her  
waist to take hold of the saddlehorn for stability. She gave him a look of  
amusement as she braced herself in the saddle and gently snapped the reins.  
The mount took the overt hint and picked up the pace, settling into something  
that wasn't quite a gallop but still covered the terrain at a decent rate as  
they headed due east, directly towards the rising sun.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They traveled in silence for close to two hours before Galen eased the  
pace down to a casual trot. The terrain here was primarily comprised of open  
meadows dotted by the occasional patch of scrub brush. She continued to guide  
the horse along at a trot until they came across a small pond, easing back on  
the reins to let the horse rest and momentarily graze. 

D frowned as he looked around the area, not finding any sort of shade or  
cover from the overhead sun. Casual travel during the day didn't bother him,  
but having to do so after three days of non-stop combat was a different matter.  
The guards and minions of Count Niles had mounted a fierce barrier-defense,  
forcing him to fight through their ranks to make it up the trail to the castle  
proper. Things had only gotten worse on the inside, as it became obvious that  
they had been preparing for his arrival for quite some time.

The very edges of his lips curled back in a faint snarl as he realized  
that he would most likely have to seek shelter soon, certainly before the end  
of their five-day journey. The thought of being buried and thus vulnerable was  
bad enough, but given the fact that he had company....

He blinked and looked up as she sighed heavily, the kind of deep sigh that  
usually only accompanied a situation of despair. She was staring off at the  
horizon, her eyes narrowed as she searched for something that wasn't to be  
found anymore.... like a castle.

She paused and looked back over at him, a heavy sadness plainly visible in  
her liquid-like eyes. She sighed quietly again and looked down at the willowy  
meadow-grass that grew around them. "I used to be able to see the castle from  
here," she said quietly. "My father said he didn't want a large domain, just  
enough to be self-sustaining and low-maintenance. The land the Hive is on used  
to be his, but he sold it to them after a couple of centuries of occupancy."

He said nothing as she seemed to gaze around the immediate area, taking  
her time in enjoying the view. "The Cha'laka Hive was like a second home to my  
mother after she left Barbarois," she quietly spoke up. "Even though she came  
from a culture that had lived in isolation for five thousand years, she seemed  
to fit in nicely with the denizens of the Hive. They welcomed me as well after  
I was born and grew up enough to truly understand them and their way of life.  
I tried to do the same with the Barbarois, but while they allowed me access to  
their city in my mother's presence, I didn't feel the same sense of kinship as  
I did here."

She sighed quietly and looked over at him, studying him carefully. "You  
went through Barbarois once yourself, correct?" she inquired.

He glanced over at her for a moment before nodding once, returning his  
focus to the level terrain and the menacing sunlight.

"I was still a child when my grandmother passed away, but I remember her  
telling me about it," she continued. "About how a vampire noble had come to  
them seeking sanctuary with a bunch of hunters in pursuit. She said that three  
Barbarois volunteered to protect the carriage as it traveled, and that one of  
them was a close and personal friend of hers. Tell me how you killed them, D."

D blinked in surprise at both the abrupt change in tone and the directness  
of the question. He turned to face her and found her twisted around in the  
saddle, looking squarely at him with a fairly unreadable look on her face.

A frown crossed her face as he remained silent. She continued to stare at  
him for a moment before she reached down, grabbing his left hand and flipping  
it over to expose the wrinkles. "I don't suppose you'll talk to me," she said  
in an edged voice.

((Umm,)) it spoke up quietly, the wrinkles parting to reveal a face marred  
by uncertainty. ((Listen, you're a cute dunpeal and all, but I don't want to  
get involved in whatever it is the two of you seem intent on getting yourselves  
into. Nothing personal,)) it added in an abashed tone.

"Hmmph," Galen muttered, casting a dark look at D. "Some company you're  
turning out to be. Do I want to ask why you don't want to talk about it?"

((D?)) the thing spoke up quietly, taking them both by surprise. ((I know  
you don't want to remember everything that went on back then, so just give her  
the basic background and stick to the part she's interested in.))

D glanced down at his hand before looking up at Galen. He noticed that  
her expression had changed slightly, taking on a hint of guarded curiosity and  
perhaps even concern. Sighing quietly, he drew in a breath and began to tell  
her about one of the most defining moments of his entire existence.

"I was hired by the Elbourne family to rescue their daughter Charlotte,"  
he said in a quiet voice. "She had been kidnapped by a vampire named Meier  
Link. The Elbournes had also hired another team of vampire-hunters, the Markus  
brothers. We pursued Meier's carriage for a number of days, eventually up to  
the gates of Barbarois.

"One of the hunters was killed outside the gates, causing them to withdraw  
for the moment. I entered the city to try to negotiate with them. While I was  
inside, one of the hunters used an astral drug to project his soul and launch  
a spiritual attack. The carriage escaped the attack and I went after it.

"One of the Barbarois guarding the carriage was a shadow-weaver, able to  
warp and twist the darkness to his will. He entrapped me in a shadow prison  
that took some time to free myself from. By the time I escaped, the carriage  
was several miles down the road. My horse had died in the attack, so I was  
delayed for another few hours while I secured a new mount."

She nodded slowly in understanding. "Sounds like Benge," she explained.  
"Grandmother said he was a little touched in the head, but he was one of the  
few Barbarois who could meld into shadows. Let's go," she said to the mount,  
reaching down to pat the side of its neck before gently flicking the reins.

They traveled down the road a few hundred yards before she peered over her  
shoulder at him, giving him a faintly reproving look. "You can still tell me  
about what happened as we ride, D," she prodded gently.

D sighed quietly and looked back out at the flat terrain, briefly looking  
up at the burning sphere in the sky. "I caught up with the carriage while they  
were resting their horses in some ruins," he said quietly. "Charlotte was out  
in the open to bask in the sun, which meant that she was still human and that  
I wasn't too late. One of the other hunters intervened, trying to take her  
back by force, and we were both attacked by one of the Barbarois. A dryad."

"Caroline," Galen said softly, causing D to lift his head up to look at  
the back of her neck. She twisted slightly to look at him, her blue-green eyes  
seeming to be filled with regret. "That was my grandmother's friend. Please,  
tell me how she died," she asked very quietly

"I pursued her into a wooded area," D explained in a calm and measured  
tone, his voice remaining as soft and gentle as hers. "Had I known about her  
powers, I wouldn't have done so. She had melted into the trees to escape when  
I was overcome with heat exposure. She then assumed the form of a treant and  
attacked me, leaving me with no other choice but to strike back. I managed to  
decapitate her while she was in her treant form and immediately sought shelter  
against the sun.

"While I lay buried in the earth, she regenerated her body and tried to  
attack the hunter who had intervened earlier. The hunter drove a knife into  
her skull and a bolt of lightning struck a few moments later, drawn by the  
metal and finishing the task before the favor could be returned."

Galen closed her eyes and sighed quietly, trying not to imagine what he  
had just described. "So it wasn't you after all," she said softly once she had  
regained her composure. "Everyone had blamed you for it, simply because they  
didn't think that anyone else could have killed her. You said she died while  
in a forested area? Good," she said when D simply nodded to her. "At least  
she found peace in a place her spirit could rest comfortably in."

They rode along in silence for awhile, Galen absently steering the mount  
as she reflected on her grandmother's stories while D quietly brooded about the  
past. He looked up as she called his name quietly, finding her looking over  
her shoulder at him once again.

"D, what about the other one who was with them?" she inquired. "Mashira."

"The lycanthrope," D said quietly, causing her to blink at the tone. "He  
remained with the carriage until it approached Castle Chaythe, abandoning it to  
try to stall me long enough for the carriage to reach the castle."

"Castle Chaythe?" she echoed in surprise. "Carmilla's castle? So it WAS  
you who finally put her spirit to rest! My father thought it was you, but he  
felt it was too dangerous to try to find out for sure. He.... didn't want to  
attract your attention," she added, her voice dropping to a soft whisper.

D said nothing for several moments, trying very hard not to remember what  
happened after he had entered the castle. "Mashira made no effort to conceal  
his presence, seeking to engage in a battle that was designed to delay me. I  
was able to approach him undetected and so the encounter was.... brief."

"I see," Galen said very quietly, returning her attention to the trail.  
"When they didn't come back, the Barbarois held a memorial in their honor. My  
grandmother never was able to tell me what the elders said about them without  
starting to cry. She said they were viewed as heroes who had died in the line  
of duty for the sake of the honor and reputation of the Barbarois."

"They did what they were hired to do," D said calmly. "Nothing more."

"Much like you do, D?" she spoke up without thinking, her tone faintly  
laced with bitterness. She paused as she realized what she said and glanced  
over her shoulder at him, studying the look on his face. "I.... didn't mean  
that in a bad sense," she amended quietly.

D looked at her before gently shaking his head. "As I told their elder,  
I have nothing personal against the Barbarois. Indeed, their loyalty to their  
ancient traditions is something to be admired. I was hired to do a job and the  
Barbarois were hired to stop me. There is no honor to be lost or won when it  
is simply a matter of doing business."

Galen just shook her head to herself. "I could never live like that, as  
a mercenary with no ties to anything but gold," she said in a subdued tone.  
"Is that all you are these days, D? A hired blade who will exchange the blood  
of your vampire kin for mere coin? I'm almost afraid to ask what the true cost  
of this was," she added darkly, reaching down with her right hand to run her  
fingertips along the hilt of her rapier.

"So tell me, hunter," she continued in a slightly clipped tone, her mood  
growing darker the more she thought about things. "What became of this Meier  
Link you pursued for so long? Surely the great vampire-hunter rescued the  
kidnapped girl and slew the evil fiend who dared take her. How much gold did  
you collect in exchange for his head on a stick? And how much gold will you  
receive for my father's death?" she demanded as she jerked the horse to a halt  
and spun around in the saddle to stare into his eyes.

He looked up at her as that last sentence came out, seeming to drip with  
scorn and contempt. "None," he said calmly. He waited until her liquid eyes  
had blinked with surprise before explaining. "My contract with the Elbourne  
family only related to Charlotte, not Meier Link. She died in the castle and  
her ring was returned to her family as proof of her passing. Meier then used  
Carmilla's shuttle to take Charlotte's body up to the City of the Night, never  
to return to the planet again. That was his original intention all along....  
his and Charlotte's. I saw no need to pursue him."

"What?" she said, blinking in surprise again. "You mean she went with him  
of her own accord?"

"So it seems," he replied with a subtle nod, praying that she wouldn't ask  
him to recount the entire story of their tragic love for one another. It had  
taken him quite a long time to quit thinking about that one, helped in part by  
the time he had been alone with Leila during the sandstorm. "Charlotte's ring  
was returned by the lone survivor of the other hunter team," he added, causing  
her head to snap up. "I made no monetary profit from it."

She looked at him in heavy silence before taking in a deep breath, seeming  
to brace herself for something unpleasant. "And my father?" she asked in a  
steady voice, belied only by the look in her blue-green eyes.

"I was not hired by anyone to kill him," he said quietly, suddenly unable  
to look into her liquid eyes any longer. He let his gaze roam across the flat  
terrain as he continued to speak. "I know he was one of the ones involved in  
the attack on my father's palace, a number of years after my mother.... after  
she was murdered. He had taken great pains to keep his whereabouts closely  
guarded since then, and it was only recently that I was able to finally trail  
him to this castle."

"D?" she breathed quietly, drawing his attention back to the soft curves  
of her face. "You mean.... my father was involved in the Blood Wars?"

D simply nodded, knowing that she was referring to the bloodiest part of  
the ten-thousand year history of the vampire reign. Upset with the Vampire  
King's iron-fisted rule, a legion of nobles had banded together in an attempt  
at usurping his power and destroying him. His father eventually fell, but not  
before most of the vampire population had been decimated almost to the point of  
extinction. Their numbers had slowly returned after the end of the Blood Wars,  
but that had all changed once he began his crusade to put an end to things....

Galen slowly shook her head in disbelief. "He never said anything about  
it," she whispered. "D, the legends...."

"Are in the past," he interrupted quietly. He leaned forward slightly,  
grabbing the reins from her and giving them a gentle flick. The mount started  
back in on a casual trot, slowly heading further down the trail.

"D...." she said quietly, reaching up to touch him. She blinked as he  
edged away from her touch, finding a dark look of concealed pain in his eyes.  
She tried to study that hidden emotion before she finally turned away, righting  
herself in the saddle and holding onto the horn for balance. She knew that  
there was a great deal more to the story than he was telling her, but the pain  
in his eyes....

A lot can happen in five days, he had said, the quiet words starting to  
echo in her mind for some reason. She knew that half of the first day was  
almost behind them, the searing light of the sun reaching its zenith overhead.  
She decided she would try asking him about the Blood Wars and her father's  
involvement another day, not wanting to push things. She had seen it in his  
eyes when he talked, opening up just the slightest amount. She thought there  
had been far more hidden in shadow behind the story of Charlotte's kidnapping  
as well, a sort of woman's intuition whispering softly to her.

Very well, she thought to herself, I will not pry further into your pain  
or your past. For now, she added as they rode along in silence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They stopped twice more along the trail, both times near small ponds of  
water and willowy grass. They dismounted to stretch their muscles as the mount  
drank and rested, D seeming to withdraw further into a shell of sorts while  
Galen tried to relax and savor the beauty of the local terrain. 

They were approaching the edge of a wooded area when Galen tugged on the  
reins, guiding the mount over to another small oasis of water and long-bladed  
grass. The sun was starting to approach the horizon behind them as she slid  
out of the saddle and walked around, absently patting the horse's flank.

"The trees will remain fairly thin for another day or so," she called out  
to him as she sat down at the end of the pond. She wriggled out of her boots  
and soaked her ankles in the cool water, a faint look of bliss crossing her  
face at the contact. "There's an old druid circle further up along the trail.  
I usually camp out there when I'm not riding through the twilight hours. You  
have any objection to staying put at night?"

He said nothing as he looked at the flaming skyline, watching as the edge  
of the sun started to brush the horizon. He narrowed his eyes as he thought,  
wondering just how long he would be able to keep going at the current pace.  
The forest canopy would cut down on the amount of sunlight he would be exposed  
to, which meant that he should be able to endure another full day before he  
would be required to make use of the digging tools in the saddle-bag.

((Uhh, D?)) it spoke up quietly, too quietly for Galen to overhear. ((Let's  
not try to be a macho man with this one, okay? I don't know how well you're  
holding up, but I seem to remember an awful lot of sunlight this past week, and  
you know what that means? Heat exposure. Need I remind you of the last time  
we went through this one? And I have the sneaking suspicion that you won't be  
able to rely on a passing werewolf to take pity on you and bury you like a bone  
in the backyard again....))

D said nothing, his right hand suddenly reaching up to touch the hilt of  
his sword without consciously realizing it. A faint chill registered on his  
senses a moment later, the unmistakable feeling that someone or something was  
nearby and was watching him.

"D?" Galen said in a low tone, remaining absolutely motionless. She had  
been reaching for her boots when she saw him tense, her own combat instincts  
telling her not to move until she had a better feel for what the problem was.

"In the woods," he said quietly, staring at a particular section of the  
treeline. The sensation of being watched had faded after a few moments, but  
not before he had caught the barest flickers of motion behind one of the trees.  
He wasn't sure if it had been a falling leaf or a squirrel that had drawn his  
attention, but he had long ago learned to trust his instincts when they tried  
to tell him something is amiss.

She scanned the woodline for a few moments before glancing back at him, a  
faint frown crossing her face as she saw him slowly lowering his hand from his  
sword. "What do you think it was?" she asked as she gently shook the water off  
of her skin and stepped into her boots.

"I don't know," he said simply, his eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

"Bandits don't usually operate this far out," she spoke up as she slowly  
moved next to the mount. "They usually stay fairly close to the human village  
that's another two days down the road. We're technically still on my father's  
lands, and he had a reputation for dealing somewhat decisively with any common  
thieves who dared bother people passing through his domain."

I'll bet he did, D thought to himself in a momentary fit of sarcasm.

((So how did he deal with the uncommon ones?)) the thing inquired, the voice  
briefly startling Galen as she went to reach for the saddlehorn.

"I never asked," she said simply, casting a faintly wary look at D as she  
took his offered hand. She hoisted herself in the saddle and picked up the  
reins, glancing down at her side to where D's left hand rested on his thigh.  
"But I doubt that he killed them if that's what you're getting at. After all,  
how is one supposed to learn the error of one's ways if they're dead?"

Both D and the thing remained quiet as the mount was gently urged into  
motion once more, both dunpeals keeping a causal but wary eye on the terrain.  
The shadows around them began to grow longer as the sun continued to set, a  
swath of cool and comforting darkness enfolding them as the last sliver finally  
slipped over the horizon.

D looked in front of him as Galen seemed to shiver briefly. He had felt  
the tingle as well, but it certainly wasn't strong enough to make him consider  
physically reacting like that. He paused as he suddenly realized that he was  
now looking at the side of her face, faint looks of amusement and embarrassment  
visible on her eyes as she gazed back at him.

"Sorry," she apologized quietly. "I tend to get all shivery like that at  
sunset. I tend to blame it on my Barbaroi blood, since nobody else I've talked  
to seems to react that strongly."

"You are who you are," he replied in quiet dismissal.

"I should hope so," she said as she turned back to look at the trail. "I  
would certainly hate to think I was someone else after all this time. May I  
ask you a question, D? What was it that made you stop back there as we were  
leaving the tavern?"

He remained silent for a few moments before finally speaking. "Paying my  
respects to another hunter, that's all."

She twisted around in the saddle to regard him carefully, one delicate  
blue-green eyebrow arching up in mild surprise. "Another hunter?" she echoed.

"Carmen Averness," he explained after a brief hesitation. "I rescued her  
mother from a vampire's dungeon a number of years ago."

"Really...." Galen said slowly, her other eyebrow arching up in surprise.  
"Odd that she never mentioned that to anyone before. I suppose you are right  
about her in one aspect. She used to be a hunter, a werewolf hunter."

The image of the scars on Carmen's wrist suddenly flashed into his mind,  
sending a twinge through his guts. If she had indeed been hunting werewolves,  
then surely one of them must have struck her in the arm at one point. That  
alone shouldn't have been enough to infect her with the lycanthropic disease,  
but if such an attack were to be followed by a deep bite....

"I see," he said quietly, already able to figure out the rest.

"She'll be alright, D," Galen said gently. "It took the elders six months  
to purge her body of the disease, but they believe it is finally done. She is  
still recovering from the antidote, however, so she will likely remain with the  
Hive for another month or two. Few think she will ever leave, though," she  
added in a slightly remorseful tone. "Not after what she confessed to doing  
while under the effects of the moon-rage...."

D said nothing, not able to think of something to say even if he had been  
inclined to comment. He had met his fair share of werewolves in the past, most  
enslaved by vampire nobles as tools. He considered himself fairly fortunate  
that he hadn't been in a situation where he had to worry about exposure to the  
disease, still not overly sure if his vampiric blood would have been able to  
subdue the infection.

"Would you believe she's only twenty-two?" Galen murmured, more to herself  
than to D. "Hardly an adult, and yet her entire life has been changed beyond  
repair twice. First becoming a hunter to avenge the death of a close friend,  
then becoming the very thing she so wanted to destroy. Tell me, D, living the  
life of a hunter as you do.... how long can a soul truly exist like that before  
it twists in on itself and either collapses or burns itself into ruin?"

It seemed a minor eternity passed before he finally answered her. "Not  
long if one possesses a human soul," he said quietly, drawing a faintly uneasy  
look from her. "One either finally rejects the fires of vengeance inside them  
or becomes consumed beyond all redemption. You don't see many old hunters on  
the trail, simply because they've either given up or died by that point."

He looked up as he felt her touch on his wrist, her head tilted slightly  
to one side to regard him carefully. "And what of you, D?" she asked in a very  
soft tone. "Which side of the balance do you place yourself on? Surely you  
think of yourself as having at least part of a human soul," she added as he  
remained silent. "Or does that not mean anything to you?"

Actually, I don't know why you hunt vampires, the voice from the past said  
in his mind's ear. I understand the need to exterminate them, but you never  
told me why you decided to pick up a sword. Tell me, D, what is it that drives  
you to pursue those blood-thirsty creatures of the night?

Leila's voice continued to haunt him, gently reminding him, even playfully  
teasing him in that coy voice of hers that he had never actually answered the  
question she had asked, never offered her that glimpse into his own dark past  
and tortured soul. He then heard her voice again, very softly whispering to  
him as he thought how Galen was now asking the same question. I can't change  
the past for you, but I can give you a second chance....

He allowed his eyes to close at Galen's touch, her fingers gently brushing  
across his cheek as Leila's once had, carefully trying to pry his soul open  
using the warmth of her own. But she was not his beloved Leila, not the young  
human woman he discovered he had loved only once it was too late, once she had  
forever slipped beyond his reach....

"D?" Galen asked very quietly, wondering if she was finally going to be  
given a glimpse behind the veil of his isolation.

He finally forced his eyes open to look at her, watching impassively as  
she instinctively recoiled from something that was visible in the depths of his  
visage. "Galen," he started to say, pausing as he heard his voice rasping in  
the confines of his throat. It seemed to take forever before the words finally  
worked their way free and slipped from his tongue. "Ask me later."

She looked at him before nodding in silence, seeming to be at a loss for  
words. It seemed for a moment that she might have tried to reach out to him,  
to touch him in a gesture of understanding and comfort before she turned away  
and refocused on the road ahead of them.

D was surprised by how tired he suddenly felt, his strength seeming to  
leave him once the eye-contact was broken and he was allowed to withdraw back  
into his shell. He looked out at the land around him, the thin line of trees  
starting to blur together as the evening twilight took a firmer grip. Soon it  
would be true night, the sky untainted by the cloud-reflected rays of the sun  
and the countless glittering pinpoints of the heavens allowed to shine upon a  
world long forsaken by the gods.

He blinked hard as the horse suddenly came to a stop, lifting his head up  
to quickly scan the area. He almost fell out of the saddle in shock as he saw  
that they were now in a different part of the shallow forest, the dim light of  
the setting sun apparently long gone. A quick search of his memories revealed  
absolutely nothing, not the slightest hint of the passage of time. A faint  
chill crawled down his spine at the realization, not having had his mind just  
summarily dispose of sensory input like that in quite some time.

((D, you with us now?)) the thing in his hand ventured carefully, drawing a  
very sharp look from him. He glanced up to find Galen twisting around in the  
saddle, giving him a distinctly wary look.

"Wait, what happened?" she asked, glancing down at D's left hand.

((He's just tired and won't admit it, that's all,)) it replied casually.

"That's enough," D said in a flat tone. He paused and looked back up at  
Galen as he heard a very soft giggle, finding a knowing smile tugging on the  
corners of her pale blue lips.

"Men," she said with exaggerated patience. "I have yet to meet a single  
male of any species who will admit to a woman that they're tired. We're at the  
circle, D, so you can take it easy now."

D said nothing as he dismounted, giving her a mild look as he held his arm  
out to her. She accepted the offer with a deliberately sweet smile, holding  
onto him for balance as she climbed down from the saddle. "Thank you," she  
said with a slight nod of her head.

He looked around the area, only needing a momentary glance to know that he  
was now on what had once been holy ground. A small clearing in the forest was  
taken up by a number of medium-sized stone slabs had been arranged in a rough  
circle. It wasn't on the scale of the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, the circle  
perhaps being a third of its size and the slabs considerably smaller, but it  
nonetheless gave one the impression that this place had been of considerable  
importance to somebody at one point in time.

The center of the circle appeared to have been blackened by the ashes of  
countless small campfires, no doubt making a natural campground for the druids  
who once lived here and those who visited the circle after their departure. A  
closer examination revealed that a number of loose pebbles and rocks had been  
gathered together in a circle of their own inside the larger one, whether the  
focus of their rites or simply a makeshift fire-pit he couldn't tell.

He began to move towards the circle to get a better look at the stones,  
suddenly halting in mid-motion as the blood-chilling tingle that meant he was  
being watched returned. He very slowly looked around at the trees, trying to  
discern which direction the threat was coming from.

((D....)) it warned quietly.

"Yes, I know," he replied calmly. He cast a quick glance over at Galen  
as she slowly backed up towards him, one hand on the hilt of her rapier as she  
likewise scanned the surrounding terrain. He said nothing as he felt her back  
lightly press against his, his hunter's instincts telling him that he could  
trust her to guard his back.

"Somehow, I don't think that's a squirrel," Galen said in a very low tone.  
"You see anything?"

The faint but sudden sound of brushing leaves made them both tense, but it  
was the sharp report of a crossbow string that set things into motion. Even  
before he knew where it was coming from, D launched into a rolling-tumble to  
get out of the way, drawing his sword in a single smooth motion once he ended  
up back on his feet.

The sounds of two more crossbows being fired in rapid succession told him  
that there were at least two opponents, possibly three if the first shooter was  
slow on the reload. A blur shot out from the darkness in front of him, aimed  
at Galen's fleeting figure as it vanished behind a tree. Deciding that he had  
enough time to cover the distance before the weapon could be reloaded, he began  
charging forward as fast as he could.

Another sharp twang echoed through the air as a bolt sailed close to him,  
coming from a patch of darkness several yards away. He could feel the rush of  
displaced air from its passing as he pressed forward, focusing on the sudden  
blur of panicked motion directly ahead of him.

The image of a human dressed in the typically dark and shoddy clothing of  
a common bandit registered on his mind as he got within arm's-length of him,  
the crossbow clearly visible as the bandit swung it up for a point-blank shot.  
Pure combat instinct took over as the threat registered, bringing his sword up  
at a steep angle with a powerful swipe.

A hideous snapping sound filled the air as the entire front half of the  
projectile weapon was shorn off, the steel-fiber bowstring coming apart as if  
it were cotton instead. The tension on the bowstring caused the severed ends  
to whip back wildly, narrowly missing D but catching the bandit in the side of  
the head to leave a fairly large gash.

Still acting on instinct, D didn't try to stop his forward momentum in the  
slightest. Raising his arm up higher to avoid making contact with the edged  
blade, he ran forearm-first into the bandit to slam him against a tree. The  
whooshing of air was clearly audible as it exited the bandit's lungs and left  
him in a barely-conscious daze.

Deciding that the bandit wouldn't be a threat for a few moments, he turned  
to go after the second crossbowman and came within a fraction of an inch of  
eating another bolt as it lanced out of the darkness. The feathers on the  
projectile managed to graze the edge of his ear as it passed, leaving behind a  
shallow nick that only served to really annoy him.

He started to charge forward but stopped just as quickly as he saw that  
the situation would shortly be resolved. The second hunter was holding what  
was called a repeating crossbow, having a clip of bolts mounted in a case on  
top of the bowstring for rapid-fire loading. The bowstring had just been drawn  
back to the firing position again when a dark blur suddenly passed over him.

D's face remained impassive as he heard the heavy thump of a human skull  
becoming rather solidly introduced into a nearby tree. A pair of fiercely  
glowing red eyes became visible a moment later as Galen stood up, her cloak  
slowly changing back from its bark-like camouflage pattern.

"Bandits," she muttered in disgust as she slid her rapier back into the  
sheath on her belt. "What fools...."

D said nothing as he returned his sword to the scabbard on his back, idly  
wondering what they had been thinking. Attacking a pair of travelers when they  
were clearly armed and the odds were perfectly even? And that didn't even take  
into account the fact that they were trying to waylay a pair of dunpeals when  
the sun was down. Granted it was possible they might not have noticed that  
particular aspect in the darkness, but still.... foolishness or desperation?

((D!)) it suddenly yelled as a metallic whispering reached his ears.

D leaned back as far as he could with something akin to a sigh as the  
dagger was thrust past him, barely missing the base of his throat. His right  
arm came up to pin the bandit's wrist back, holding it steady. His other hand  
formed into a fist as it swung up, the back side casually slamming into the  
center of the bandit's chest.

The bandit gasped hard as he was thrown back into the tree once more. The  
dagger promptly fell from his limp fingers as his eyes rolled up into his head,  
the blade neatly falling into D's hand as the bandit slid down to the ground in  
a three-quarters unconscious stupor.

"Nice reflexes," Galen said calmly as she dragged the other bandit over to  
where D was standing. The man's nose was clearly broken, blood streaming down  
his face to leave an even darker stain on his dark shirt. "So, whatever shall  
we do with these two, hmm?" she mused loudly, grabbing the second bandit by his  
collar and pinning him against a tree.

She leaned forward until they were almost nose to nose, her eyes glowing  
a vibrant red color as she pulled her lips back to expose her vampiric fangs.  
"Let me ask you something, fool," she said in a decidedly casual tone. "Do you  
have any idea who you just tried to kill?"

The man's eyes became dangerously wide as he stared at her, a steady flow  
of blood still oozing down his face. "C-C-C-Count's.... d-d-d-daughter...." he  
gasped, clearly terrified at the realization.

"Oh, good boy," Galen cooed quietly. "Maybe I'll let you live after all,  
just so I can tell my father about this. Oh, you spineless WORM," she spat in  
disgust a moment later.

D just looked away as he heard the sound of the bandit's bladder letting  
go, no doubt at the mere thought of being taken to see the vampire landlord for  
punishment. A very soft moan at his feet told him that the first bandit was  
regaining his senses. A not-overly-gentle nudge of D's boot convinced him to  
keep his moans of pain to himself and stay put.

Galen reached out and grabbed the bandit's jaw, wrenching it hard to the  
right so his gaze fell on D. "Next question, fool.... do you have any idea at  
all who my traveling companion happens to be?" she inquired evenly.

It took a few moments for him to recognize the silent figure. "I-I-It's  
him.... t-t-the dunp-p-peal vampire h-h-hunter...." he rasped in a high-pitched  
tone as his eyes widened even further.

"Mmm, that's two for two tonight," Galen replied coyly as she forced him  
to look back up at her. "Had your aim been as good as your memory, we might  
have been in a bit of trouble. Of course, had you bothered to take a closer  
look at us before pulling the trigger, you wouldn't be in this situation, now  
would you?" she added in an edged tone.

"Countess, p-p-please...." the man babbled quietly. "I beg you...."

"Hush," she said absently as she looked over at D. "What do you think we  
should do with them, D? One for you, one for me, sounds like an even split.  
I haven't had a bite to eat in a long time," she added, deliberately flashing  
her fangs at the terrified bandit.

D remained silent as she reached out with a single finger, lightly dabbing  
it in the mass of blood dripping down his face. She brought the crimson smear  
to her lips, very gently flicking her tongue across it. She made a face and  
spat on the ground a moment later, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

"Yeech, maybe not," she said sourly. "Well, there goes that option. Not  
that I was kidding about needing a decent meal, but you taste like week-dead  
roadkill. So what do I do with you, hmm? D, would you...?" she added, making  
an absent gesture at the bandit next to D.

D said nothing as he reached down, casually grabbing the bandit's collar  
and yanking him to his feet. A simple glare convinced the man to stand still  
and remain perfectly motionless as they both waited to see what Galen would do.

"Thanks," Galen said to him. "We should always do our part to keep our  
lands clean and free of trash. Okay, fool," she said as she turned her focus  
back to the bandit with the broken nose. "I'll be honest with you. I got a  
really nice wake-up call this morning and that sort of had me in a good mood  
all day. So in spite of what you two idiots tried to do, I'm going to give you  
a chance to learn from this. Just grab your stuff and go home. Really, that's  
it," she said as both bandits gave her incredulous looks. "Of course, if I  
ever find either one of you trying to rob anyone again, I'll feed you to him,"  
she added, making a subtle gesture towards D with her chin.

The second bandit flinched hard as D cast a sidelong glance at him, very  
carefully edging away from the dunpeal as discreetly as he could. "Go," D said  
in a perfectly calm and level voice.

Galen smirked to herself as the bandit promptly took off running like a  
bat out of hell. "You should go get that bandaged," she said as she took a  
step away from the other bandit, making a gesture to the retreating figure.  
"Now get out of here and take your broken toys with you. Or do you intend to  
stick around and see what's for dinner?" she added lightly.

The bleeding bandit immediately started running, coming to a halt as he  
tried to pass D only to have his arm grabbed in a solid grip. He remained  
frozen in fear as D edged closer, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets  
as D calmly tucked the other bandit's forgotten dagger in his belt. A single  
step back was all D needed to take to indicate he was finished with him, the  
bandit promptly bolting off into the woods a fraction of a second later.

D and Galen just looked at one another in silence before they both glanced  
down at D's left hand as it began to laugh very softly to itself. ((You two are  
a piece of work,)) it chuckled in obvious amusement. ((Somehow, I think it will  
be a very long time before either one of them even thinks about trying to pull  
a stunt like that ever again.))

"Let's hope so," Galen replied as she wiped her fingertip against her leg.  
"Well, that was an exciting way to end a day, don't you think?" She sighed and  
gave D an irritated look as he simply turned around and headed back towards the  
mount without saying anything. "Or would you prefer I had killed them?" she  
called out in an edged tone.

D stopped in his tracks and cast a dark glance over his shoulder. "You  
did the right thing," he said calmly before moving over to the mount to start  
unloading a few items from the saddle-bags.

"Thank you, your highness," she muttered sarcastically as she headed over  
to the saddle-bags to get her own equipment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galen sighed as she set her mess-kit aside, not able to eat the last bits  
of the trail rations she had warmed over the small campfire. Had the forest  
been any thicker she would have suggested that they go hunting for some game  
instead of relying on the too-dry foodstuffs for sustenance. 

She looked up at the dark figure sitting opposite her, peering through the  
shimmering veil of heated air caused by the quietly crackling fire. The circle  
of stones made for a rather interesting backdrop, one that might have inspired  
her to paint a portrait if she had any artistic skills worth mentioning.

She remained silent as she studied him, absently wiggling her bare toes as  
they were warmed by the fire. The more she thought about it, the more she was  
convinced that something was hurting him on the inside. Why else would he keep  
such a wall of isolation around him if he didn't fear being hurt further? Part  
of her yearned to reach out to him, to try to break the wall down to see what  
was hurting him, to try to see if she could help him. But at the same time....  
would it be worth it?

This was the very same man who killed her father, who hunted not just him  
relentlessly over the years but the rest of her kind as well. She knew that  
not all of the recent vampire deaths had been by his hand, some of the more  
spectacular ones being attributed to him simply because of the disbelief that  
anyone else could have done it. But he had definitely killed his fair share of  
his own kind, vampires and dunpeals alike.

And now that she was the last, she knew he would eventually kill her too.  
So why had she bothered with the charade of wanting to see her mother? Part of  
her truly did want to visit her mother's grave, of course, but her real intent  
back then had been to stall for time, to give her a chance to get her wits back  
in order and think rationally again. So now that she was thinking clearly....  
why allow this to continue?

A lot can happen in five days, he had said.

She closed her eyes as the words continued to echo in her mind. Five days  
she had asked for, and one was all but gone now. Four days left, four days for  
her to.... do what? Get to know him? See if she can be his friend? Would it  
matter to him if they did become friends? She knew he abided by his own code  
of honor that she was starting to understand, but would even friendship hold  
him back from killing her? Certainly not if he was willing to die in the name  
of his personal crusade....

She sighed quietly as she opened her eyes and looked back up at him. He  
had finished eating awhile ago and was simply sitting there, the brim of his  
hat masking his face from her gaze. Not from the fire, however, as that was  
what he appeared to be staring at.

What sort of fire burns in your heart, hunter? she silently asked, part of  
her wanting to ask aloud but not having the courage to do so. What is it that  
has driven you for so long, for all the hundreds of years that you have roamed  
the world? You have to be at least two thousand years old, if not three. And  
yet through it all you have remained focused on one goal, one single task that  
should have seemed to be all but impossible at first, but now....

"D," she said very quietly, not entirely sure if he would be able to hear  
her over the quiet crackling of the fire. She saw the edge of his hat tip up  
just slightly, an indication perhaps that his gaze had shifted towards her.

She drew in a deep breath and suddenly decided to press on, figuring that  
the subtle sign would be all the acknowledgement that she would receive. "What  
happened to you back then?" she asked. "What went on during the Blood Wars  
that made you hate your own blood like this? What could you have done to make  
you hate yourself so?"

He remained silent for so long that she feared he wouldn't answer. The  
passage of time was only measured by the soft pops of the branches that fueled  
the campfire before he finally spoke, the softness of his voice almost lost  
among the background ambient noise that one could find in any wooded area.

"I saw what we were like," he said. "I saw what we were capable of, and  
how little we regarded all that wasn't like us."

He didn't react when she silently rose to her feet, moving around the fire  
to sit a few feet away from him. His gaze remained focused on the flickering  
heart of the small blaze, his eyes seeing the dancing yellows and oranges of  
the flames but his mind seeing something else entirely.

"When they attacked the palace, they also attacked the local villages as  
well," he said in a hollow whisper. "Human villages, innocents who had nothing  
to do with the insurrection. They torched everything and everyone, viciously,  
mercilessly slaughtering all who managed to escape the fires. I could hear the  
screams from my bedroom, smell the scent of burning flesh and spilled blood,  
watch helplessly as women were raped, children beheaded, innocent people caught  
in the middle of a war and left to die.

"I had thought that was only because of their greed, their evil. When my  
father planned to strike back, my mother pleaded with him to spare those who  
were not involved in things, to leave the innocents alone. He apparently did  
as she asked at first, but she suddenly disappeared two days after the first  
wave of counter-strikes.

"She was found on the steps of the palace three days later, broken almost  
beyond recognition, her body violated, drained dry of blood and life. I can  
still remember the screams of my father at the discovery, screams that I will  
never be able to forget.

"Without her influence, without her love to guide him, my father flew into  
an unholy rage at all who had risen against him. He demanded that her killer  
be brought forth or that all who opposed him would suffer. When none stepped  
forward, he went on the offensive and brought the war to their domains, laying  
waste to their lands, bringing death and destruction and ruin to the innocent  
humans whose sole crime was happening to live in their domains. I asked why he  
was doing this and he said it was the only way they would understand. Strike  
and be struck, harm and be harmed.... that is what your father said, about what  
my father became in the end."

He fell silent as he felt her touch on his arm, very gently squeezing his  
wrist before slipping her fingers among his to hold his hand. The warmth of  
her skin was almost on par with the heat of the fire, bathing him with a level  
of intensity that threatened to burn him if he spent too much time near it or  
got too close to it.

"Eventually they came for me," D continued after awhile, not knowing how  
much time had passed since he last spoke. "They sought to strike at me to hurt  
my father, much as they had done with my mother. Three of their number were  
able to breach the defenses, finding me in the hallway. I grabbed the nearest  
weapon I could by instinct, nearly burning myself with the searing light of the  
ancient sun-sword that was part of the collection on the wall. I knew how to  
use a sword by then, but I had never used that one.

"The light alone was bad enough, but its touch proved to be devastating.  
I killed the first two within moments, the white light melting through their  
swords as if they had been cast from wax. I went to confront the third one  
when he used his powers, first disabling the power source of the sun-sword,  
then causing it to destruct in my hand.

"I don't know how I survived either the explosion or the assault that  
followed. All I remember was blindly grabbing for a weapon from the collection  
on the wall, then hearing the sounds of many voices screaming in unison. I  
later awoke in my bed, one of my father's retainers telling me that I had been  
found near death and had spent four days in a slumber. The hole that had been  
torn in my hand had been healed, but not by my regeneration."

D sighed very quietly as he looked down at his left hand, seeing the quiet  
wrinkled face of the symbiot staring back up at him. "It has been with me ever  
since, becoming a part of me in many ways."

The gentle grip on his right hand tightened as D closed his eyes, not able  
to look at her or it or anything else anymore. "Nobody seemed to care that  
innocent people were being slaughtered by the thousands," he whispered. "Not  
my father, not the other nobles, not the insurgent vampires. I left the castle  
on my own a few days later, intent on finding my mother's killer without having  
to resort to wholesale slaughter. I began to pursue those who I knew had taken  
part in the assaults on the palace.

"I confronted and slew three before they realized what was going on, what  
I was doing among their ranks. Those who weren't preoccupied with the attack  
quickly left, returning to their lairs and castles and domains. I began to  
follow them, hunting them one by one, tracking them down wherever I found them,  
whenever they slept with the sun.

"As I traveled, I realized just how they treated their own people, their  
own citizens of their domains. Most viewed them as simply cattle, existing  
solely for the nobles to feed from when they desired. The rest viewed them as  
tools, resources, something to be exploited, manipulated, used. Not a single  
one seemed to care, not even the other dunpeals I encountered. Nobody.

"As I chased a vampire past a small village on the far eastern continent,  
I suddenly found myself having to make a choice. I could either continue to  
pursue him, one whom I knew had taken part in the attacks, or I could let him  
escape and instead help the villagers rescue a young woman who had been taken  
captive by a local vampire. In the end, I realized that it really wasn't a  
choice after all."

"And so you put vengeance aside to help them," she said very softly.

"It hurt to let him go," D replied, his voice barely more than a whisper.  
"But I suddenly realized that only I had the power to rescue the girl, a young  
innocent barely old enough to be a woman. I realized that if I didn't do it,  
if I didn't step in to defend the weak from the strong, nobody else would. Who  
else could go up against a vampire and live? My conscience.... the teachings,  
the words, the love, the soul of my mother wouldn't allow it. I had to stop  
and help them.

"I don't know how long it took before I was able to start searching for  
that vampire again. It seemed that as soon as one wrong was righted, as soon  
as one innocent was freed, was spared death or worse, another would be taken  
captive, and another, and another. Always by the hands of vampires, always by  
those who cared nothing for justice, for innocence, or for humanity. I finally  
realized that I had to try to put an end to things, to put a stop to the dark  
pall that vampire-kind was casting over the world."

He felt her touch on his chin, tilting his head up to force him to look  
into her liquid eyes. "I understand, D," she whispered. "Knowing what I know,  
seeing what I've seen.... I don't think I can truly blame you. Our kind has  
brought great pain to others, and there is nothing I can say or do that would  
ever undo what was done, to restore what was taken.

"But it is over now, D," she said as she leaned forward slightly, holding  
his hand a little tighter. "You've done what you've set out to do. They're  
all dead, D, every single last vampire. Your mother's killer has been found as  
well. I still find it.... difficult to believe that my father could have been  
capable of such a thing, but.... she has been avenged. Her soul can rest now  
in peace knowing that you have...."

She fell silent as he abruptly pulled away from her, his gaze returning to  
the flickering core of the campfire. "That I have annihilated an entire race?"  
he said softly, almost bitterly. "That I destroyed an entire civilization in  
my quest for vengeance? I don't believe she would have wanted that."

"Then why did you do it, D?" she asked softly.

D closed his eyes and rested his forehead on his arms, wishing the voices  
would go away, the calls and cries of his past rushing up from his memories to  
torture him once again. "I had no choice," he said simply. "I killed the ones  
like your father for vengeance, and that doesn't bother me. But the others....  
I had to kill them because they were evil, they brought only death and misery  
to those who were innocent. Had any of them been able or willing to change  
their ways, I would have gladly left them alone. Do you know what it is like,  
to look at them, to feel sickened by what they do, and then turn around to look  
at your own reflection in a mirror, knowing that their blood and all its evils  
flows just as strongly in your own veins?

"I know the hunger, Galen," he whispered harshly, seeming to be on the  
verge of a breakdown. "I feel it every day, every night, every time I see a  
drop of blood, smell it in the air. I've seen what that hunger can lead to,  
how easily it can tempt and corrupt. How many times did it take every ounce of  
my strength and willpower to turn away from a pretty girl's throat, knowing she  
was offering herself of her own free will but knowing what it could lead to,  
how easily it could turn me into that which I had spent my entire adult life  
trying to fight, to suppress, to defeat?"

His eyes snapped open as she suddenly moved, her hand glancing off of his  
cheek a moment later. The slap hadn't been a powerful one, intended to shock  
more than hurt. Surprised and stunned, he looked up at her to find a faint  
scowl marring her exotic beauty.

"Arrogant bastard," she said very quietly.

It took D a fairly long time to get his brain back in working order, his  
eyes finally blinking into full focus. "Galen...." he started to say.

"You think you're the only one who suffers like that?" she said as she  
leaned closer to him, the edges of her lips edging back to expose the points of  
her fangs. "I'm a dunpeal as well, D. Maybe having Barbaroi blood makes it a  
little different from my perspective, I'll grant you that much, but we're both  
half-vampire and I'll bet we both have the same needs, the same hungers, the  
same cravings for blood."

She sat back and regarded him carefully, slowly shaking her head. "You  
know what your real problem is, D? You're not alone simply because you're a  
dunpeal, you're alone because you want to be alone. I understand your pain,  
believe me I do. But you don't see me crawling into a little shell to try to  
hide my pain from others. No, I reach out to them, to try to draw as much  
strength from them as I can. I'm not above asking for help when I think I need  
it. There's no dishonor in relying on others, D."

He said nothing as he turned his attention back to the fire, not sure what  
else to say anymore. He closed his eyes at her touch again, her fingertips  
lightly brushing over his cheek where she had struck him. "D?" she said very  
softly, her breath tickling his ear as she spoke. "We all hurt inside for one  
reason or another. I can try to help you with your pain, but only if you're  
willing to open up to me. It's just.... something to think about."

"Thank you," he said quietly, not knowing what else to say.

She squeezed his shoulder before moving to stand up, pausing for a moment  
and leaning back down. "I'll be on that large tree at the edge of the circle.  
It would be.... appreciated if you could wake me up in the morning as gently as  
you did earlier. Sleep well, D," she whispered softly before standing up.

He remained where he was, head bowed and eyes closed as he listened to the  
soft sounds of the night around him. He could make out the faintest of clawing  
sounds as Galen started to climb the tree-trunk, the louder snaps and cracks of  
her cape assuming a bark-like form echoing a few seconds later.

The quiet sounds of the forest and the soft crackles of the fire were the  
only things he heard for the longest time afterwards, the voices of the past  
remaining surprisingly silent for once in a very long time. Perhaps they would  
even let him sleep in peace, something that hadn't happened since....

Two faces suddenly looked back at him from the depths of his memory. Both  
blue-eyed blondes, born centuries apart, never knowing one another, but still  
able to reach across time and space to touch his heart and soul. In was only  
in their arms on two quiet nights that he had found true peace, true silence,  
and part of him wondered if he would ever be able to find such a thing again.

((D?)) it spoke up in a very soft tone, only the psionic half of its voice  
registering on his senses. ((Listen, I just.... wanted to say thank you.))

That caused him to lift his head up, just enough to part his eyelids and  
glance down at the hand resting on his elbow. "For what?" he asked.

((I know I've been with you since.... well, pretty much since the beginning  
of this whole crusade,)) it replied quietly. ((But I never really remembered how  
it all began. Childhood memories don't last too long, especially when they're  
buried by all the years that follow. Thank you for opening up and telling me  
how it started. I'm sure Galen appreciates it, too.))

"Galen...." he muttered, a whisper so soft that he almost didn't hear it  
himself. He closed his eyes a moment later, wondering why he had spoken her  
name like that.

((Look, I can feel the exhaustion from here,)) it spoke up. ((Just grab the  
blanket and call it a night, okay? You can think about things in the morning  
if you still need to.))

D sighed and laid down, making sure he was close enough to the fire to  
still feel its warmth but not so close that he would run the risk of singed by  
burning embers. Sleep claimed him faster than either of them anticipated, a  
thick curtain of darkness seeping over him to draw his tortured soul into the  
realm of haunted dreams once again.


	3. Day 2 Circle of Stones

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.) 

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

((Day 2 - Circle of Stones))

He awoke with the sun, his eyes parting just as the leading edge of the  
dawning sphere crept over the horizon. The campfire had burnt itself out long  
ago, only a single and nearly invisible wisp of smoke remaining as it wafted up  
from the last few embers. A faint hint of a chill hung in the air, serving as  
a gentle reminder that the turning of the seasons was slowly approaching.

He remained motionless for a number of moments, gazing at the horizon as  
it slowly brightened. A bulge hanging from on one of the trees cast an odd  
shadow on the ground, the large tuft of blue-green at the top being the only  
indication that it wasn't the seasonal home of a very large caterpillar.

He closed his eyes briefly as he heard a loud yawn, doing his best not to  
follow suit. He finally gave in after a few seconds of resistance, trying not  
to wonder what was so contagious about it.

((I was wondering when you'd wake up,)) it greeted him with a quiet chuckle.  
((Not to be a louse, D, but has anyone ever told you that it's obvious to tell  
when you're sleeping well and when you're not?))

D took his time in sitting up, trying to work out the stiffness in his  
joints that came from sleeping on uncushioned terrain. "What do you mean?" he  
finally asked, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him despite the fact  
that he could clearly see he was just being baited for entertainment.

((You only snore when you're sleeping comfortably and you're not too busy  
thinking about something,)) it replied. ((Therefore, when you're quieter than a  
dead mouse when you sleep, it means something is weighing heavily on you. I  
don't suppose you want to mention what it might be? Or do I have to play the  
infamous dunpeal guessing-game again?)) it added when D remained silent.

He ignored it as he looked around the terrain, trying to see if he could  
locate a suitable bush. Had he been traveling alone he would have pissed on  
the ashes of the fire without a second thought, just to make absolutely sure  
that it was completely out. But since he was not alone and in the presence of  
a woman to boot....

((Hey, where we going?)) it spoke up as he headed off. ((Galen's cocoon is  
over that way. You know, so you can wake her up like you did yesterday? I'll  
bet that's going to be a real hard task for you.... hey, hey, HEY! Watch the  
branches! Ow!))

"It would be best if you were to stay out of this," D said calmly as he  
proceeded to take care of his personal business.

((Oh, here we go again,)) it replied with a groan that was only half-faked.  
((Not another 'you shut up while I go screw up another shot at a relationship  
with a very beautiful woman' scenario. D, when are you going to listen to me?  
C'mon, after what she said last night about wanting you to open up to her? I'm  
pretty sure it means she....))

"I said stay out of this," D interrupted in a flat tone as he sealed his  
trousers with a sharp tug.

((D....)) it sighed, its voice taking on a tone of resignation that usually  
came with the impulse to bang one's head against a solid object. ((What in the  
name of all that is holy are we going to do with you? Look, just trust me for  
once on this, will ya? I can have the two of you.... !!!))

The entire tree rocked with the blow as D slammed his left palm against  
the trunk as hard as he could. He remained perfectly motionless until the tree  
quit swaying, watching impassively as a thin trickle of his own blood began to  
ooze down the bark.

((....Ow....)) a quiet voice moaned inside his mind.

"Stay out," D said simply, knowing he didn't need to say anything else.

((Eeesh,)) it grunted as D removed his hand from the tree. ((Well, I'll be  
damned, that actually cleared out my sinuses pretty good. Alright, D, I get  
the hint. I'll keep my mouth shut about it. Umm.... crap, hold still....))

He said nothing as the thing slowly drew in a deep breath, creating a  
powerful vacuum-like effect that caused several of the tree's lower branches to  
start swaying back and forth. It paused after a few moments, trying to hold  
the mass of air in before it began to twitch hard.

D almost wound up flat on his backside as it suddenly sneezed, the stored  
air rushing back out with the force of a major hurricane. The outrush of air  
was so powerful that it created a dent in the tree-trunk, blowing the layer of  
bark apart and cratering the wood beneath it. A small deluge of leaves began  
to rain down a moment later, ripped free from the branches by the sneeze.

"Gezundheit," D said calmly once he was sure his balance was stable.

((Sorry,)) it apologized quietly. ((Told you it cleared my sinuses....))

He said nothing as he returned to the circle of stones, not surprised to  
see that neither the blood-tingle of the rising sun nor the momentary hurricane  
had disturbed the cocoon-like object on the tree. It had been positioned at an  
angle on the tree, the trunk sheltering the majority of the cocoon's surface  
from the morning rays of the sun. A few stray orange-and-crimson beams managed  
to strike her hair, however, blending in with the blue-green strands to create  
a kaleidoscopic highlight that he had to admit was fascinating to study.

A very faint buzzing noise started up as he began to run his fingertips  
through the prismatic strands, very lightly stroking her hair. He continued to  
repeat the motion at a slow and fluid rate, the soft buzzing noise starting to  
grow louder with every passing moment. It seemed to him that the process took  
a fairly long time before the cocoon-cape finally fell away from her, revealing  
the way she was curled up with the insect-like claws on her hands and feet  
securely attached to the tree.

((You're the first person to ever wake me up like this,)) she said softly,  
her voice distorted into an almost metallic buzz. She leaned her head back,  
just enough to bring his fingertips in contact with her scalp. A soft sigh  
rose up from her chest as he promptly withdrew his hand, taking a step back to  
give her enough space to climb down.

She twisted around, her facial features slowly reverting to normal as she  
looked at him. "It is.... definitely a pleasant way to start the day," she  
said quietly as she slowly stretched her joints. "Good morning, D."

"Morning," he replied quietly, absently studying the muscle structure of  
her elbows and knees. They appeared to be perfectly normal, but after seeing  
how she had spent the night vertically hanging from the tree by her fingers and  
toes, he knew that she had to have some incredibly powerful muscles to be able  
to not only support her weight but to still be able to move after several hours  
of remaining motionless as well.

"But not a good one?" she inquired as she eased her way down. She resumed  
her normal form a few moments later, the twisted spurs and gnarls seeming to  
melt away to restore her pale skin to utter flawlessness once again. "Surely  
you're not so pessimistic about life that you can't enjoy a morning every now  
and then. I think it looks fairly scenic from here," she added as she turned  
to face the rising sun, narrowing her eyes slightly against the radiance.

She sighed and closed her eyes as he moved past her without a word, her  
hand reaching out to snag his arm at the last moment. "D, I'm sorry if I upset  
you last night," she said quietly, slowly opening her eyes to look up at him.

"You didn't," he replied in a faintly reassuring tone.

"So what's the problem?" she said, raising a delicate eyebrow.

He looked at her for a moment before the corners of his mouth twitched up  
a fraction of an inch in what might have been the beginnings of a smirk. "I'm  
not a morning person," he said evenly. He paused and regarded her carefully as  
she began to chuckle very softly to herself.

"I suppose I walked into that one," she said dryly. "Now imagine that, a  
dunpeal who isn't a morning person. What ever is this world coming to?" She  
just shook her head to herself as he moved past her in silence, heading over  
to the circle of ashes to make sure all the embers were extinguished.

He busied himself with the task of cleaning up any traces of the camp,  
packing everything away in the saddle-bags while she slipped away to tend to  
her own morning call of nature. He looked up when she returned, a faint look  
of confusion marring her exotic beauty.

"D?" she called out when she drew close. "Did something happen back there  
last night while I was asleep?"

He lifted his head to follow her gesture, grunting softly to himself when  
he realized she was pointing at the sneeze-damaged tree. "The air needed to  
be cleared," he replied calmly. "Nothing more."

She gave him a truly odd look for a moment before shaking her head, not  
entirely sure if she wanted to inquire further. "Okay," she said in a leery  
tone. "So did you want to grab breakfast now or a little bit down the road?"

"Later," he replied as he made sure the saddle-bags were properly secured,  
casting a momentary glance at the rising sun. The burning sphere had already  
cleared the horizon and continued to inch higher in the sky, only partially  
masked by the treeline. He knew that the forest canopy was pretty thin at the  
moment and wanted to reach a measurable amount of shade as soon as possible.

She shrugged in dismissal, taking a step back to give him space to hoist  
himself into the saddle. "That's fine with me, I'm not in much of a rush for  
another helping of those trail rations. Heh," she chuckled, giving him a coy  
look as he held his hand out to her. "If I had to eat those things all the  
time, I'd probably be as dour as you are as well," she teased him gently.

He shot her an unamused look as he braced, half-helping her up into the  
saddle. He got another amused look and a quiet giggle for his efforts, her  
hands reaching down to pick up the reins once again. "D, please tell me you  
have a sense of humor," she said as she gently nudged the mount forward.

((He has one,)) D's symbiot suddenly spoke up, immediately drawing a truly  
dark look from D. ((Quit looking at me like that, D, we both know you have a  
sense of humor. The only problem is you keep forgetting where you put it....))

He just sighed as Galen giggled quietly to herself, ignoring the playful  
pat on his leg. The sun was already creeping above the treeline, bathing them  
with its golden brilliance. He sighed again as he began to feel its effects,  
wondering which was going to end up posing the greater risk to his health....  
the flesh-burning light and heat of the sun or his uncertainty about what he  
would ultimately end up doing with Galen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They rode for another two hours before stopping to rest, letting the horse  
graze on some of the still-abundant meadow grass while they idly nibbled on a  
portion of the trail rations. The trees were still fairly thin, far too thin  
for D's comfort as the sun continued to beat down on them. 

"Ooooh," Galen cooed quietly as she caught motion among the willowy grass.  
She narrowed her eyes as she followed the progression of moving stalks and very  
faint rustles, wondering what sort of woodland creature was causing it. "Oh,  
yeah," she purred as a pair of ears were glimpsed as they darted across an open  
patch of terrain. She unconsciously licked her lips, watching as the rabbit  
poked its nose up above the grassline.

"What's your favorite kind of game, D?" she asked quietly. "Mine happens  
to be rabbits," she added without waiting for a response that she knew wasn't  
very likely to come. "Yeah, they're a little small and reeeeeeeally hard to  
catch, but mmmmmm, do they taste good. Maybe if we're lucky we'll be able to  
snare a couple for some stew. Their blood is pretty good too, if you don't  
mind a bit of an aftertaste, but I've found that you can cover that pretty well  
if you add a little cider mulling spice."

She continued to watch the rabbit move around before it seemed to suddenly  
disappear, no doubt going back to its underground burrow. "Oh, well," she said  
with a longing sigh. "Relax, little one, you won't be on my dinner plate any  
time soon. Now should I meet a few of your cousins near my own burrow...."

She paused and glanced behind her as she felt D shift his weight in the  
saddle slightly, narrowing her eyes slightly at the look on his face. "D, is  
something wrong?" she asked carefully.

He lifted his head up to glance at her for a moment before slowly shaking  
his head. "No," he said simply as he returned his focus to the surrounding  
landscape.

She narrowed her eyes even further as her woman's intuition tried to tell  
her that something was indeed wrong. "You sure about that?" she inquired in a  
cautious tone. She just sighed as she received a faintly reproving glare in  
response. "I was just checking, D, relax. One might think I was asking you to  
do a cartwheel on the grass from the look on your face."

((You must've missed the moves he made last night during the ambush,)) it  
spoke up in a faintly amused tone. A very soft grunt could be heard a moment  
later as D balled his hand into a fist, effectively keeping it quiet.

"I noticed," Galen replied quietly as she went back to scanning the grass  
for more rabbits. "Very agile. I'm not sure I would have charged someone with  
a crossbow like that, but I guess one develops different combat styles when you  
use an edged sword instead of a pointed rapier. I still can't believe how you  
managed to break mine like that," she added as she picked up the reins and gave  
them a gentle flick.

"Speaking of broken weapons," she said conversationally as she guided the  
mount into a casual trot, "What exactly happened to your sword back there? You  
know, the one you used to kill my father." She paused for a moment before she  
glanced over her shoulder, suddenly aware of an almost palpable shift in his  
mood. "D, you sure you're alright?"

"It was destroyed," D said quietly, almost sullenly. He glanced up at her  
with a veiled look of pain in his eyes before looking away.

"Do I want to ask how?" she inquired, alternating her attentions between  
him and the trail ahead of them.

"He had gathered together an incredible amount of spiritual energy," he  
replied quietly. "When he died, that energy was released in a blast of raw  
power. I didn't have enough time to both grab my sword and get clear of the  
explosion."

"Wait, what?" she said as she jerked the mount to a halt. She twisted  
around in the saddle to look at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. "You mean  
he used himself as an energy trap?"

"The old ones like him were very powerful entities," D explained quietly.  
"Their deaths always resulted in a massive outpouring of all the life-energy  
they had absorbed and retained throughout their existences. That burst of raw  
energy is what causes their castles to crumble, often held together through the  
ages not by mere mortar but by sheer force of will. In your father's case, he  
merely channeled all that energy into a single point so that it would violently  
erupt when my sword pierced it."

"I.... see," Galen said softly, a somewhat disturbed expression crossing  
her face. "I take it that sword of yours was a family heirloom or something?"  
She blinked in surprise as D seemed to wilt and withdraw inward, the shell of  
isolation almost taking a physical form. "D, please.... tell me," she asked in  
a soft tone as she reached out, gently laying her hand on top of his.

She was surprised when he didn't flinch from the contact or pull away,  
giving her a glimmer of hope that she was somehow reaching him through the veil  
of his guarded emotions. "It was a gift from.... an old friend," he finally  
replied after almost a full minute of silence, his eyes still downcast.

"Human or vampire?" she asked softly, hoping that she wasn't pushing too  
hard by asking.

His eyes rose up to meet hers for a moment before he looked away again.  
"Human," he whispered.

She squeezed his hand gently before turning back around, setting the mount  
into motion with a gentle flick of the reins. "I know what it's like," she  
said after a few moments of careful thought. "You're out riding around, just  
minding your own business, and all of a sudden a human winds up in your life.  
I don't know what it is that makes them so fascinating, and I don't think any  
of our kind really knew either. They're so chaotic and unpredictable, and yet  
that seems to be both a weakness and a strength. And just when you start to  
get used to one, get to know and understand how he or she thinks, they get old  
on you. And before you know it, they're gone, just like that. It's.... I'm  
not sure I understand it even after all this time."

She risked a glance over her shoulder, blinking at the openly haunted look  
of pain and suffering on his face. It wasn't anything like physical pain or  
discomfort, but rather the silent agony of loss and sorrow. His expression  
changed a moment later as he glanced up, realizing that she was looking at him.

"A woman, then?" she asked quietly, receiving nothing but silence and an  
emotionless stare for several moments. He finally nodded slightly, the edge of  
his hat barely wobbling up and down in acknowledgement of her insight.

"I had a.... consort like that once," she said as she looked back at the  
trail, sighing quietly as her own memories returned. "So young and full of the  
warmth of life. He made me smile a lot, though not always from his sense of  
humor. I guess he just knew how to share his love of life with me, to make me  
appreciate things as he did. He was an affectionate little beast, too," she  
added with a soft chuckle. "Always a little hug here, or a gentle touch there,  
or a soft kiss when I didn't expect it. I pitied his human stamina, but he did  
his best to please me whenever I let him coax me into something a little more  
involved than casual snuggling under a tree."

She sighed again and looked up at the sky, trying to estimate the time of  
day by the position of the sun. "That went on for a good twelve years or so,  
then he apparently lost a fight with some hairy thing in the forest. I don't  
think anyone ever managed to find out what killed him, but I was.... not nearly  
as prepared for his loss as I thought I would be. I mean, of course I knew I  
would outlive him, but.... time has a way of weighing on you when you're not  
watching it."

"Did you love him?" D asked very quietly.

Galen paused for a moment, caught off-guard by the question. "Love him?  
Not really. Don't get me wrong, he was a lot of fun to be with and all, but I  
certainly didn't see us as a couple or anything. He was.... well, like I said,  
more a casual consort than anything. Someone to spend some time with, relax  
around, have a little fun.... okay, a lot of fun," she amended with a fairly  
moderate blush on her cheeks. "I still miss him sometimes, but I'm not about  
to go drown myself in a mug of ale over the memories. Perhaps that's a little  
cold of me to say so, but this was quite awhile ago. Time tends to dull a fair  
amount of pain as it slips past you. D.... why did you ask me that?"

She was answered with a long stretch of silence before her sensitive ears  
finally heard him draw a breath. "I.... wasn't sure if we knew how to love,"  
he said very softly. "I knew there was a bond between my mother and my father,  
and I knew she loved him, but I was never able to determine if he loved her in  
the same way she did him. I never knew what it felt like until I met.... her.  
And I didn't realize what it was, what I had until she was gone."

He looked up as she leaned back slightly, taking hold of his hand to slip  
her fingers among his in a gentle grip. "I don't think I can answer that one  
for you," she whispered, looking down at the road as she loosely held the reins  
in her free hand. "But perhaps you can answer it for me. Tell me about her,  
D, about this human woman who touched your heart and gave you that sword."

He sighed quietly, almost painfully as he began to tell her about all that  
had happened back then, how he had met Doris and helped her win her personal  
struggle against Count Magnus Lee. He then went on to tell her how Doris had  
been his first in so many ways, his first lover, the first sips of willingly  
offered blood he had taken, the first time he slept in someone's arms since his  
mother's death.... and the first voice to haunt him after he came to believe he  
had hurt her.

"It took me a very long time to forgive myself for that," he whispered.  
"I.... I would still be in pain today if.... if it wasn't for another young  
human woman. She touched my soul as Doris had touched the human part of me,  
making me realize that I was capable of love and that I had loved Doris. It  
took me a long time to realize that I loved her as well, but.... by that time  
it was already too late. Again."

Galen remained quiet as she listened to him, still holding his hand in a  
gentle grip. She could almost physically feel the pain in his voice, almost  
taste the sorrow on her tongue as it threatened to drown him once again. Even  
with as strong a grasp as she had on the common language they shared, she knew  
that there wouldn't be any, couldn't be any words that could possibly help ease  
his pain. Time itself couldn't mend that sort of wound, the kind that could  
only be healed by the gentle touch of a kindred spirit and an open soul.

She lifted her head slightly as he realized that he had fallen silent, the  
shroud of his isolation starting to surround him once again. She dared not try  
to prod him further at this point, to dig deeper into the wound to ask who the  
second woman had been. She would try to gently ask later, as the passage of  
time could dull that particular kind of pain, the kind caused by the baring of  
one's heart and soul.

She sighed quietly as he tugged his hand free from hers, finding herself  
wishing that he would trust her. The realization that she was starting to have  
feelings for him caught her by surprise, making her suddenly question her state  
of mind. He had killed her father, brought her entire species to extinction,  
and at the end of their journey would pierce her heart with his blade as well.  
So why was she trying to reach out to him like that? Was she simply that  
desperate for company? Did she truly fear being alone that much, unique not in  
just her heritage but as the lone survivor of the vampire's legacy as well?

The sun continued to shine down on them with a fierce intensity as they  
rode along in silence, both lost in dark thoughts that burdened their souls so  
heavily that neither would have ever wished the weight on their worst enemies.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was late afternoon when Galen finally realized that something was wrong  
with D. Not just the dark and silent brooding that she had come to accept as  
part of who he was, but something more bothersome. She had briefly rested the  
mount on three occasions, once easing herself out of the saddle to make use of  
a particularly dense bush. He had hardly moved at all during the breaks, only  
reaching out to offer her a steady hand as she mounted and dismounted. 

She cast a worried glance over her shoulder as she nudged the mount into  
motion once again, trying to decide if she should risk confronting him. The  
back of her mind was clearly screaming a warning of some sort, but she didn't  
know what exactly it was trying to warn her of.

"D," she said quietly, studying his face intently. The edge of his hat  
lifted up slightly, a gesture she was starting to become familiar with. "Are  
you alright?"

She received a gentle nod before he went back to thinking about whatever  
it was he had been thinking about for the past few hours. A sudden flash of  
her women's intuition told her that he was lying, that he wasn't alright and  
that he was trying to mask it for some reason.

Think, she told herself. You know how men work.... well, somewhat. What  
would cause a man to try to conceal pain? Pride, certainly, but that he would  
try to quietly take care of on his own. Is it even pain? she suddenly asked  
herself. Or is it something else?

She allowed the reins to go slack for a moment, letting the mount settle  
into his own pace with only the slightest of nudges of her boots on his flanks  
needed to keep him moving forward. She tried to study his face even closer, a  
slight frown crossing hers as he looked up at her with a level gaze that was  
completely unreadable.

"D," she found herself saying in a slightly flat tone. "What's wrong?"  
He remained silent as he gazed back at her, prompting a very soft growl of  
frustration from her. Just talk to me, you fool, she wanted to yell at him.  
She knew that it would only make matters worse if she did so, however, which  
was the only reason she held her tongue.

"Men," she allowed herself to mutter as she turned around and flicked the  
reins, perhaps just a little harder than she had intended. The mount promptly  
picked up the pace, the change in inertia slightly rocking them both in the  
saddle as the horse moved forward at a canter.

She paused as she felt him adjust his weight, almost as if he hadn't been  
prepared for it. That struck her as slightly odd, as he had always seemed to  
be able to compensate for a change of inertia even when he was clearly wasn't  
paying attention to anything other than his own private thoughts.

Could he be getting sick? she wondered. She knew that he was probably  
just as resistant to things like viruses and bacterial infections as she was,  
given their robust immune systems and capacity for physical regeneration. It  
was possible for dunpeals to get the equivalent of a sniffle or a headcold, and  
both vampires and dunpeals tended to be just slightly more susceptible to that  
which affects the blood or the heart, but such things were still rather rare.

She carefully listened to his breathing, not an easy task given all the  
immediate background noise. The steady clop-clop rhythm of the horse's hooves,  
the subtle creaking of the leather saddle as it moved back and forth, the soft  
rustle of their clothes as they moved with the saddle, the whisperings of the  
light breeze as it blew past, the calls of the daytime woodland animals....

There, she thought as she closed her eyes. Her features started to take  
on an insectoid appearance as she concentrated, an unconscious side-effect of  
her focus. It took a moment to determine the rhythm of that super-quiet sound,  
a gentle passing of air that seemed.... shallow. Frequent. Not labored, but  
not relaxed either.

So something is bothering him, she thought as she returned her focus to  
the road, her exotic beauty smoothing out to normal of its own accord. She  
began to shift her sensory focus again, trying to see if she could smell the  
scent of his blood. She gave up after a few moments as she realized that the  
breeze drifting past them put her upwind of him.

Something's wrong, she thought, rewinding her thoughts to start over at  
the beginning. He seems.... lethargic? Not breathing deeply, faster than it  
should be, but still quiet so it's not a respiratory irritation or blockage.  
He's not tense or irritable, so it's not the blood-hunger. I really hope he's  
not coming down with something, although I don't see what it could possibly be  
in terms of a virus. His hand felt a little warm, but that's just....

She jerked hard on the reins as something clicked in her mind. She waited  
until the mount had stopped before turning around, reaching out to grab his  
hand and ignoring the startled look on his face. His skin was warm, just a  
little warmer than it should have been. It wasn't the feverish warmth of an  
infection or sickness, but rather the warmth of pale skin that had been exposed  
to the cloudless sky for two full days of late-summer sunshine.

A simple glance at the look on his face drove the realization home, able  
to piece together everything. Breathing shallow to avoid rasping as his throat  
started to constrict, hardly moving at all to avoid exerting what little energy  
he had left, keeping his head down so she wouldn't see the unusual contractions  
of his pupils whenever she glanced back at him.

"D, it's heat exposure, isn't it?" she said quickly, letting go of his  
hand to tilt his head up slightly. He jerked away from her touch, but not  
before she could see the faintest traces of luminescence in his eyes and the  
very tips of his vampiric fangs lurking beneath his slightly-parted lips.

"You fool, you could have said something earlier," she muttered as she  
turned back around and quickly looked at the landscape, trying to determine  
where exactly she was. "Okay, we're close, but just how close? Let's try it  
like this," she whispered to herself as she held up a hand.

Her eyes began to take on a multi-faceted composition as she lifted her  
head up, making a rather loud and protracted buzzing-hum. A pair of ridges  
formed on her forehead as she concentrated, her features continuing to slowly  
assume a distinctly insectoid shape as she called out in a language that was  
anything but a language.

A very faint buzzing sound registered on her senses as a common bee flew  
over to her, circling her hand for a moment before landing on an outstretched  
fingertip. She very carefully brought her hand up to her face, studying the  
insect intently as she made a series of very soft buzzing noises. The yellow  
bee reacted a few seconds later, wiggling its abdomen in an odd pattern as it  
fluttered its wings in pulses.

She nodded in understanding as she very gently blew a puff of air at the  
bee, dislodging it from her hand and causing it to fly off. ((We're a little  
farther from my burrow than I thought,)) she said as she glanced over at D, her  
voice distorted by her insectoid form. ((You can rest in safety there, but we  
still have a lot of ground to cover first. I can bury you here if you don't  
think you can hold out that long.))

He looked at her for a moment before nodding in understanding. He leaned  
forward, sliding both arms around her waist to grab the saddlehorn with both  
hands. "Ride," he said softly.

((D?)) the voice drifted up from his left hand. ((I don't think you should  
try to push it. Now might be a good time to WHHGURK)) it gasped as D jammed  
his hand down, shoving the horn into its open mouth. ((D, when was the last  
time you washed this thing?)) it asked psionically in a rather calm tone that  
only D could hear.

"Hold on," Galen whispered as she made sure she was braced properly. She  
cast a final glance over her shoulder, her blue-green eyes seeming to be filled  
with liquid concern as she flicked the reins hard.

Most of D's senses promptly blurred into uselessness, the thunderous sound  
of galloping hooves blotting out anything else that he might have heard. The  
rough motion of the saddle quickly played havoc with both his vision and his  
sense of balance, causing him to close his eyes and grip the saddlehorn with  
what little strength he had left.

Two senses he did manage to retain were his senses of smell and touch. An  
unusually soft and airy scent was tickling his nose for some reason, making it  
even harder to think straight. His face felt like it was being bathed by a  
thousand feathers, a sensation that was somewhere between a tickle and a very  
soft caress. It took him a moment to realize that both were being caused by  
Galen's hair as it fluttered past him, brushing across his face as she drove  
the mount forward at a hard pace.

D wondered if that is what it had felt like to her when he had touched her  
hair earlier, waking her up from her slumber as she had asked him to do. The  
faintest suggestion of a smile crossed his face as he decided he liked it, the  
last thought to register on his conscious mind at his body began to shut down  
from too much exposure to the searing light of the sun.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earth was the host for the circle of life, the great wheel of events in  
which all living things were born, lived, and died. Everything grew from the  
land in one form or another, either by living in it directly as plants do or by  
sustaining themselves on the food-chains that were rooted in the ground. Life  
sprang from the earth, took nutrients from it to continue, and later returned  
those nutrients when that spark of life died and decomposed. 

It was this sort of fundamental life-energy that vampires and their kind  
instinctively sought out when wounded or weakened beyond their capacity for  
self-healing. Just as they needed to draw blood from the living, the liquid  
essence of life needed to sustain themselves, so too did they occasionally need  
to draw upon the most fundamental force of the land that fueled and hosted life  
as an entity.

When D regained consciousness, he was immediately aware of two things. He  
knew that the sun had just set, as it was the gentle tug on his spirit that had  
finally drawn him back from the inner darkness. But even before he could open  
his eyes or make sense of the sensory input his body was giving him, he knew  
that he was buried fairly deep in the ground.

It seemed to take forever for his eyelids to finally part, letting him  
assess his surroundings. He immediately noticed that he was in a pit of some  
sort, buried up to his armpits in soft soil. A small barrel and a shovel were  
nearby, both covered with the same kind of dirt he was resting in. His arms  
had been left free, allowing him the freedom to dig himself out or pile more  
soil around him if he so wished.

The nature of the room he was in took a few seconds to figure out, finally  
realizing that he was in a large hollow dug under the roots of a fairly massive  
tree. The roots could be seen along the walls, indeed forming the structure of  
the walls themselves. A sort of ramp was off to one side, no doubt the only  
way in or out from the underground chamber.

The smell registered on his nose a moment later, an unusual blend of the  
rich, earthy smells of the soil and tree mixing with the tantalizing scent of  
meat being slow-roasted over hot coals. It took him a moment to spot where the  
pit was, a matted sheaf of leaves gathered together in a corner to surround a  
tiny column of smoke and steam.

He began to turn his head to look around, noticing that his sword had been  
propped in the corner just inches beyond his reach. Both his hat and his cape  
were hanging from the hilt, neatly folded and tucked away so they wouldn't get  
dirty. He narrowed his eyes for a moment as he tried to decide if he would be  
able to stretch enough to reach his sword without having to dig himself out.

A light touch on his cheek startled him, twisting his neck around to find  
Galen sitting against the root-wall with her shapely legs stretched out. She  
smiled softly at him as she continued to stroke his cheek, a look of relief  
plainly evident in her liquid-like eyes.

"So you're awake," she said softly. "You had me worried for awhile, D."

((That makes two of us,)) a quiet voice spoke up a moment later, causing D  
to clench his left hand by reflex. He said nothing as he looked away, quietly  
cursing himself for being such a fool for trying to press on after exerting  
himself so much in the sun. Bad enough that he had collapsed from exposure to  
the sunlight, but now he was both vulnerable and essentially at her mercy. And  
in her debt....

"Here, you need to drink this," she said as she hefted a simple copper  
goblet, holding it out to him. She sighed quietly at the look of suspicion in  
his eyes and leaned over to set it down in front of him. "What, do you think  
I'd go to all the trouble of bringing you here and burying you, just to wait a  
few hours for you to wake up so I could poison you? Drink it."

He glanced down at the offered goblet, blinking at the crimson contents.  
The smell of fresh blood registered on his nose a moment later, followed by the  
taint of something else mixed with it. He carefully picked it up, sniffing at  
it intently to see if he could identify what that other smell was.

"D?" she said in a weary tone of resignation, causing him to look up at  
her. "It's just rabbit blood mixed with mulling spice. Give it back if you  
don't trust me or don't want it. Junior there wasn't easy to catch, and I'd  
rather not let his blood go to waste," she said, making a gesture to what was  
in the covered roasting pit.

He studied the look in her eyes before nodding in resigned acceptance. He  
took a cautious sip from the goblet, pausing as he realized that the contents  
seemed to have been warmed. The blood was hotter than it should have been,  
even when drawn fresh from a living artery, and the distinct flavor of the  
mulling spice made it a very unusual taste experience.

His eyes closed of their own accord as he savored the blood as one would  
a fine wine, able to feel the strength creeping back into his body with each  
sip of the crimson nectar of life. He could tell that it had been drawn from  
a youthful source, overflowing with energy and vitality. The young ones were  
always the best, he had heard many a vampire comment during his travels, not  
soured with the blood-fat that infants had or having had time to harden and age  
like cheese as the blood of adults did....

He almost reflexively spat out a mouthful of the spiced blood at the mere  
thought of taking blood from an infant. He swallowed and set the goblet down,  
the faint shudder of revulsion effectively quashing any desire for more. He  
glanced down at it before picking the goblet back up again, swirling it around  
gently before holding it up higher to Galen.

She blinked in surprise at the gesture. "D, you sure you don't want the  
rest of it?" she inquired, eyeing how much was left inside the copper vessel.

"It was enough," he replied quietly. "Thank you."

"If you insist," she said as she accepted the goblet from him. She gently  
swirled the contents around again before taking a deep sip, sighing softly in  
relaxed contentment as she savored the taste. "Mmmm, that's good. He was so  
small, I didn't want to waste any of his blood by sampling it first. Hopefully  
that means he'll taste just as good when he's finished roasting."

"How did you catch him?" D inquired, the hunter in him slightly curious  
about how one went about catching something that tended to be very small, was  
easily spooked, was highly agile, and ran extremely fast.

"Point-first," she replied with an amused twinkle in her eye. She made a  
gesture to the gleaming rapier that was leaning against the far wall next to  
her boots. "One of the advantages of using a piercing weapon like a rapier.  
One simple thrust and you've got your prey. Very little loss of blood, and if  
they're light enough you can simply carry them back like a large skewer. Oh,  
you could probably take a swipe at a rabbit with a sword like yours and even  
manage to tag it hard enough to count, but only if you don't mind having some  
of the meat being shorn off and probably spilling most of the blood."

D said nothing as he continued to look around the small underground room.  
He realized that his instinctive feeling of depth had been caused by the fact  
that they were below-ground to begin with, and that being buried in the pit  
just made it seem like he was deeper than he should be. "Where are we?" he  
asked quietly, casting an appraising glance at the exposed roots of the tree  
overhead.

"My own little world," she replied coyly, her tone causing him to cast a  
slightly uneasy glance in her direction. "It used to be a large rabbit warren  
when Mikhail and I first discovered it during one of our forest trips. We had  
it hollowed out into a sort of.... I wouldn't call it love-nest, but it was a  
place where we could snuggle in privacy when we wanted to," she explained with  
a faint blush. "I used to come here whenever I wanted to get away from the  
castle or just be alone. You're the first person I've taken here since his  
death," she added, her tone growing soft. "And that was quite awhile ago."

He gave her a simple nod of understanding as he continued to look around.  
The ground had been hard-packed to the consistency of stone, making it unlikely  
that anything would try to tunnel into the chamber from deeper underground. A  
small barrel was tucked away in a corner, almost completely hidden by the thick  
wall of roots. A slender pipe ran above it to disappear into the 'roof' of the  
underground room, probably used to collect dew or rain-water.

"That's technically my bed you're in, in case you were wondering," she  
added casually. A soft chuckle rose up from her chest at the look on his face,  
her pale blue lips unable to suppress a gentle smile at his discomfort. "It's  
been awhile since I had to use it, however. I learned that sleeping attached  
to a living tree is just as refreshing for me as spending a few hours buried in  
the soil. A small but important bonus for having Barbaroi blood," she purred.

"Useful," D commented quietly.

Galen smiled at him as she drained the last drops of spiced blood from the  
goblet, setting it aside on a small bench-like shelf of packet dirt that jutted  
from the wall. She looked like she was going to say something when there was  
a gentle popping sound from the roasting pit, a large volume of steam wafting  
up in a large cloud a moment later.

"Mmm, that sounds like our little friend is ready to join us for dinner,"  
she said, giving him a coy look before standing up to cross the room. "I hope  
you aren't allergic to rabbit-roast or anything," she said as she carefully dug  
up the edges of the pit cover, leaning back as a veritable wall of steam rushed  
out at her.

He remained silent as she extracted two bundled packages from the glowing  
coals and embers of the roasting pit, leaving the covering off to let the heat  
warm the room for a few minutes. The leaf-wrapped and obviously hot portions  
were carefully untied and sorted out into their mess-kits, resulting in two  
fairly large piles of steaming meat and a few assorted steamed vegetables.

"Sorry about having to use your mess-kit like this," she apologized as she  
leaned down to set the tin pan and stainless-steel utensils down in front of  
him. An accidental glance up at her provided D with a momentary view down her  
blouse, clearly able to see the super-soft curves of her unrestrained feminine  
anatomy. He glanced away a moment later, trying hard not to blush by reflex to  
indicate that he had seen anything and thus embarrass her.

"I'd offer you the plates I keep here, but it seems that I forgot to put  
them back in storage the right way the last time I was here," she continued,  
apparently unaware of the accidental exposure. "Lichen grows in the damnedest  
places," she added with a faint blush of embarrassment.

"Thank you," D said, not bothered in the least at having to use his mess-  
kit to eat dinner. It was slightly awkward to try to eat when the pan was only  
a few inches lower than your mouth and you were buried up to your armpits in  
dirt, but he did his best to enjoy the hot meal regardless.

Galen sat down by the edge of the pit beside him, stretching her legs out  
as she had when he first woke up. Neither bothered to make any attempts at  
conversation for awhile, both deciding it was best to simply enjoy a meal that  
tasted a lot better than the dried trail rations they had relied on since  
leaving the Cha'laka Hive.

They were half-way through the meal when she got up and went back over to  
the other side of the room. D watched with idle curiosity as she retrieved a  
heavy clay jug and a short stick from within the barrel of water. The jug was  
hung from a small hook on the end of the stick and carefully lowered into the  
still-smoldering pit, creating a truly large hissing cloud of steam. She then  
quickly unhooked the stick and pulled the cover back over the pit, settling the  
matted leaves into place. A steady stream of super-hot water vapor promptly  
started to rise up from the small hole in the center, making it seem like one  
of the many vents he had seen while traveling through a volcanic region.

"I like warm wine with dinner," she explained as she returned and noticed  
the faintly intrigued look on his face. "It should be finished heating up by  
the time we're done eating."

He said nothing as she sat back down and resumed eating, quietly wondering  
what the hell he was going to do now. She had saved his life twice, first on  
the bridge and now saving him from his own foolish stupidity and the burning  
light of the sun. To even think of killing her now would be unconscionable,  
not when he owed her so much. But at the same time.... her blood was just as  
contaminated as his was by the taint of vampirism. She would have to die if  
he was to free the world from that foul stain on the soul of humanity.... but  
at what price?

It was his honor that had kept him going for so long, that set him apart  
from the other dunpeals he had met. They hadn't cared for the lives of humans  
one damn bit, mere pawns to be used in the game of life, used as cattle for  
food and labor only to be cast aside when their usefulness was over. It was  
his sense of nobility that kept him going, not in the sense as the veneer of  
elitism that the vampire lords used among themselves, but in the virtue of his  
character, the purity of his purpose, the integrity of his word. He kept his  
word and only promised what he knew he could and would deliver.

But to kill Galen now would be one of the most dishonorable things that he  
could do. Yes, they had been enemies on the bridge, but circumstances since  
then had changed that. She had bound herself with a blood-oath, staking her  
honor and even her life on her promise. He was bound by his own honor to the  
other terms of the oath, to escort her to her mother's grave-site. Striking  
her down before then hadn't even remotely crossed his mind, but once their  
journey was over and they were both released by the conclusion of the pact....

He glanced up as he felt her fingertips brush against his cheek, a rather  
gentle caress that sent just the tiniest of shivers down his spine. She was  
looking at him with a curious expression, those liquid-like eyes narrowed just  
slightly as she focused on whatever emotions he might have had on his face.

"Something on your mind, D?" she asked quietly. She tilted his head up  
when he looked away, very gently pulling his chin towards her so that there  
would be no easy escape. "You can tell me, hunter," she purred.

"It's nothing," he said calmly, giving up the battle and keeping his eyes  
focused on her exotic beauty. A distant part of him made note of the fact that  
the soft blue color of her lips was completely natural, answering a question he  
had idly wondered about earlier.

"Seems awfully heavy to be nothing," she chided gently, tilting her head  
at a slight angle. "Granted a case of heat exposure will give a dunpeal a lot  
to think about, but something tells me that this isn't the case here."

He sighed quietly through his nose, knowing he was both physically and  
verbally trapped with no easy or graceful way out. "Let's just say being in  
this sort of position doesn't sit well with me," he said frankly, keeping his  
voice free from any negative influences that might have upset her.

A delicate blue-green eyebrow arched up in what could have been amusement,  
intrigue, curiosity, or any combination of the three. "And what position might  
that be, hmm?" she inquired. She continued to study his expression before a  
small light-bulb went off, causing a soft smile to slowly spread across her  
face. "Oh, I get it now," she said in a silken tone. "You're upset that you  
had to be saved instead of being the dark knight who usually does the saving,  
isn't it? It's okay, hunter, your secret is safe with me."

"I never doubted it wasn't," he replied calmly. "You haven't given me any  
reason to doubt that you are a woman of honor."

"Thank you," she said, a new kind of smile briefly crossing her face at  
the compliment. "Well, if it isn't a matter of your honor or mine, then what  
is the problem? Mmm, nevermind, you already told me," she added with a faint  
sigh. She glanced over at the column of steam coming from the roasting pit  
before a new thought came to mind. She cast a sidelong glance at him before  
slowly turning to face him, a slightly predatory gleam starting to form in her  
liquid eyes.

"D?" she asked very slowly, watching him react to the tone of her voice.  
"You're not upset that I saved you, are you? Mmmhmm," she purred to herself  
as he suddenly glanced away. "I think I can see how that would pose a bit of  
a problem for you. Here you are, letting me go see my mother one last time  
before you kill me, and all of a sudden I end up saving you from a fatal case  
of sunburn. Honor can be such a cruel bitch at times, don't you agree?"

He shot her a dark glare as she spoke that last sentence, suddenly not so  
sure about her after all. They both knew that he did in fact owe her his life,  
and that if she decided to make a demand of him that he would feel honor-bound  
to comply with her request. Only up to a certain point, granted, as there were  
a few things honor couldn't compel him to do, but there was still a fair amount  
of leeway to be had in what he would allow himself to do if so demanded.

She looked at him before sighing quietly to herself. "D, I already told  
you this once, I will not make demands on you for such a thing," she said in a  
slightly flat tone, able to clearly see the thought passing over his eyes. She  
had to suppress a hollow grunt of amusement at his look of relief. "But I have  
to admit, I am.... tempted," she added, letting her voice turn coy again.

((Here we go again,)) a muted voice said in his mind, spoken so softly that  
only the mental component could be heard. The voice promptly fell silent as D  
pressed his hand against the ground as discreetly as he could, not wanting to  
cause a scene by disciplining it in public.

"I hope you don't blame me," she purred as she edged closer, leaning down  
slightly as she ran her fingertips along his jaw. "How many women do you think  
would just love to be in my position right now? Imagine, being trapped in a  
small underground room with a legend, one who can't run from you, can't escape  
your touch...."

A fairly strong icy chill ran down D's spine at the change in her tone,  
setting off a quiet alarm in his mind. It wasn't the first time he had been  
exposed to such a thing, the whimsically playful whisperings of a woman who was  
in a mood for something a little more substantial than casual conversation.  
The part of his mind that usually dealt with the hyper-fast dynamics of combat  
suddenly spun up, trying to analyze the situation he was in and hopefully find  
an honor-saving way out of it.

He was physically unable to move away from her. He could lean back to  
indicate that he wasn't interested in whatever she wanted.... but that would  
not only be rude, but possibly a bit of a lie as well. Her touch was far from  
an unwelcome one as it traced his chin, but it was at the same time something  
he still couldn't bring himself to openly embrace. He could all too keenly  
remember Leila's touch, caressing him as Galen's hand did now, and all that it  
had led to in short order.

Would that really be a bad thing? he found himself thinking. It wouldn't  
be bad in the sense that he wouldn't enjoy it.... far from it. Part of him was  
worried that he would enjoy it too much, but that was a whole different issue  
altogether. No, the bad part he was truly worried about was the sheer conflict  
of interest that would arise once their journey was over. If he yielded to her  
now under these circumstances, how could he expect himself to be able to kill  
her? Being able to live with himself afterward wasn't the issue, as that only  
had to last for a few moments before the blade could be turned on himself and  
that would be that, but he would have to strike her down first....

And deep down inside, whether from his human heart or hybrid soul or from  
some new place he hadn't discovered yet, he knew that he really did not want to  
hurt her for any reason. She didn't seem like any of the other dunpeals he had  
met, she actually seemed to care about others who weren't like her.

The scene with the bartender back at the Hive sprang to mind. Yes, she  
seemed to give the impression that she was ready to rough him up if he didn't  
give her what she wanted, but at the same time it seemed that her only intent  
was to break through his xenophobia and bias against outsiders.

Then there had been the bandits, two humans who seemed to be lacking a  
little common sense. He had no doubt that any other dunpeal or vampire would  
have killed them where they stood for having the audacity (or stupidity) to  
attack them, maybe even making one watch while the other was drained of blood  
just for sport. But she had let them go with only a warning and a painful  
lesson learned, giving them a second chance to perhaps find a new path to walk  
in life.

No, her actions were not like the evil whims of the others. That clearly  
made her different from them, different enough that he would have to have a  
very clear justification for killing her. And after saving his life twice, he  
simply couldn't think of any possible reason to wish her harm. Indeed, part of  
him once yearned to find a kindred soul, to have something close to a friend  
who could understand him and his way, his choice that really wasn't a choice.

But could Galen be it? That desire had died out a very long time ago,  
starved to death when encounter after encounter with his own kind had eroded  
all hopes of finding someone else like him. But still.... perhaps there was  
still a spark of that left, a tiny seed buried within the depths of his soul,  
his humanity. Both had only recently been touched in his life, and both by  
women he had come to love....

He blinked and refocused as she tilted his head up slightly, those soft  
blue lips seeming to edge even closer to him. He could tell what was going  
through her mind, wondering where things would go if she leaned over just a  
little more. He also knew that if he allowed it to happen it would make the  
situation even more chaotic than what it already was, and at this point that  
was saying an awful lot.

Question, the combat-oriented part of his mind finally said. You're in a  
situation you well and truly can't figure out if you should remain in or not.  
Time is not in abundant supply, and if something isn't done soon the balance  
will be shifted to one end or the other, and that will be awfully hard to try  
to undo once it happens and the results are not to your liking. You don't want  
to act, but not acting isn't an option. So what do you do? Simple....

You stall for more time.

"Galen?" D murmured as she edged even closer to him. He winced as his  
voice sounded more than a little husky, made slightly raw by stress but easily  
mistaken for something else entirely.

"Yes, D?" she breathed softly, almost too softly for him to hear. Those  
soft lips were dangerously close to him now, being only a simple gesture away  
from making contact with his skin and possibly even sealing his fate in a way  
he probably wouldn't be able to imagine on his own.

"The wine is boiling," he said as calmly as he could manage. His breath  
promptly jammed in his throat with anticipation, wondering just how she was  
going to react.

She blinked in surprise at his words, perhaps having expected him to say  
something either positive or negative and caught off-guard by the statement.  
She cast a sidelong glance towards the steaming vent, turning her head to fully  
focus her attention as the faint whistling sound registered on her mind.

"Damn," she said quietly. Whether it had been a muttered curse or a soft  
sigh of disappointment wasn't clear, but it was enough to break the electric  
tension of the moment. "Thanks," she said as she quickly stood up and darted  
across the room.

D couldn't help the heavy sigh as his breath suddenly exited his lungs.  
It was all he could do to keep it silent, watching with mixed relief as she  
carefully hooked the heat-blacked jug with the stick and lifted it out of the  
burning embers. A soft hissing sound filled the air as the clay jug was dunked  
in the barrel of water, cooling the external temperature down by at a couple  
hundred degrees.

He paused as he felt a funny sensation in his hand, flipping it over to  
look at the mass of wrinkles in his palm. He watched as they opened up just  
a fraction, letting him see the look of disappointment on the thing's face.

((You're a wuss, you know that?)) it muttered softly.

"Stay out of this," D whispered back, hoping that Galen was too busy with  
the heated jug to hear either one of them.

It rolled its eyes before the face seemed to melt back into his hand, a  
quiet snort of contempt echoing inside his mind. ((Fine, have it your way,)) it  
said before the voice fell quiet.

D looked up as Galen returned, holding a pair of wooden goblets that were  
filled with a steaming liquid. She knelt down next to the pit and leaned over  
to set it in front of him, causing him to avert his eyes to avoid a repeat of  
the earlier accidental exposure. "Thank you," he said quietly as he reached  
out to touch the goblet. It was decidedly warm to the touch, the gentle wafts  
of steam rising up from the amethyst liquid warning him it was probably still  
too hot to drink.

"Sorry about that," Galen apologized as she sat down, putting her own  
goblet aside for the moment. "It's a little hot right now, so we'll have to  
wait a few minutes."

A faint chill ran down his spine as she glanced at him for a moment, her  
blue-green eyes quickly moving down to stare at her goblet. She seemed to sigh  
as she picked it up, very gently swirling the steaming liquid around as she  
lightly blew on it. "D.... I want to ask you a question. About what happened  
when you were chasing Meier Link and Charlotte," she said softly.

She kept her gaze focused on the amethyst wine, waiting to see if he would  
reply to her. She sighed softly when no response was forthcoming, disguising  
the action as a gentle puff on her wine to try to cool it down a little more.  
"Why did Charlotte go with him?" she finally asked in a quiet tone.

"She said she loved him," he replied, suddenly feeling tired for some odd  
reason. He briefly wondered if there had been something in the rabbit blood  
or the roast that was making him feel so weary, but he soon realized that it  
was only the weight of the memories from that particular incident. That, and  
the memories of what it eventually led to with Leila....

"What do you think it was?" Galen asked, gingerly bringing the goblet to  
her lips. It was apparently still too hot for her liking, however, for she  
edged it back down without tasting the overheated wine. She looked over at him  
as she felt the weight of his puzzled look. "I mean, do you think that she  
really did love him enough to let herself be kidnapped and carted off?"

He looked away, fixing his gaze on the faint column of heated air rising  
up from the open roasting pit. "I believe so," he said quietly, remembering  
how Charlotte had called out to Meier during their first encounter.

She nodded and looked down at her wine again, softly blowing on it once  
more. "What about Meier?" she asked. "It's pretty obvious that humans can  
fall in love with vampires. You and I are both proof of that, thought I can't  
quite say the same about all the other dunpeal births."

D said nothing, not needing to be reminded how many other dunpeals had  
been born. Human women tended to be the vampire's favorite prey, regardless of  
the sex of the vampire. While a vampiress would usually have little interest  
in the sexual capacities of their female victims, the males were another story  
altogether. He had rescued more than one human woman who had been an unwilling  
victim of a vampire's lustful attentions. Of course, saving the ones who had  
willingly gone to bed with them and were later made to regret their decisions  
tended to result in far worse consequences....

"How do you think Meier felt about her?" she asked softly, finally risking  
a sip of the heated wine.

It was not a question he could easily answer, not having been able to find  
a satisfactory answer for himself. He had heard the grief in Meier's tone when  
he had held Charlotte's lifeless body, grief genuine enough to cause Leila to  
stay her finger from the trigger of her pistol and not blow the vampire into  
the afterlife. D didn't doubt that Meier was deeply saddened by Charlotte's  
loss, but at the same time he still had his doubts that a vampire like Meier  
Link had enough of a soul in him to truly love. D's father hadn't seemed to,  
despite the radiant, almost blinding love his mother had for him, and her love  
had been about as powerful as it could get.

"It's possible," he finally said, almost too softly to hear. He couldn't  
have answered with a definitive yes-or-no response, as he truly didn't know for  
sure which one it was. The easiest solution would have been to ask Meier Link  
himself what his feelings had been, but given the fact that he had gone up to  
the City of the Night and was now so much stardust with the rest of the City's  
countless inhabitants....

"What's possible?" Galen asked, lifting her head up to give him a confused  
look. She had barely heard his muttered words and wasn't sure what he meant.

He glanced over at her before looking down at his own goblet of wine. "I  
suppose it's possible that Meier loved her," he said before taking a cautious  
sip of the wine. A deliciously warm sensation flowed across his tongue, the  
gentle flavor of the mulled wine blending in perfectly with the aftertaste of  
the rabbit roast. He could tell that the wine was a little more potent than it  
should have been, part of the water having been boiled away to concentrate the  
heavier liquid that remained.

She said nothing for a few moments as she sipped at her wine, her gaze  
slightly unfocused as she thought. "D?" she said softly after taking a slow  
and subtle breath. "I have a confession to make...."

The goblet was almost to D's lips when he heard her soft-spoken words,  
resulting in a near-spillage of the hot wine. He cast a brief sidelong glance  
at her before setting the goblet back down, not wanting to be in a position to  
embarrass himself by venting the liquid out his nose should her words shock him  
or otherwise take him by surprise.

Galen sighed quietly and looked down at her own goblet, swirling it around  
in a gentle circle. "I never stopped to wonder if.... if it was possible for  
us to fall in love. It just never crossed my mind for some reason, nor did I  
ever try to seek it out. But now that I've met you and I know such a thing is  
possible...." She paused as she turned her head slightly, just in time to see  
a classic 'deer in headlights' look on D's face before he recovered. "D?" she  
asked carefully, her brow furrowed slightly with confusion at his reaction.

He slowly drew in a deep breath before he looked up at her, praying very  
hard that he had simply misheard or misunderstood something. "Us as in who?"  
he asked as calmly as he could manage.

"As in our kind, of course," she replied carefully. "Why, what did you  
think I...? Oh," she added in a whisper as she suddenly realized how her words  
could have been taken.

D blinked as a truly violent blush seemed to explode onto her cheeks, the  
bright red coloring standing out in very stark contrast to the paleness of the  
rest of her skin and the blue-green coloring of both her hair and her eyes. He  
said nothing as he looked back down at his wine, deciding it would be best to  
indulge in a deep drink of the super-warm liquid. It was intended more as a  
method of buying time than quenching his thirst, but he found the taste to be  
pleasing nonetheless.

The awkward silence hung between the two of them like a heavy veil, keenly  
visible for what it was but neither one in any great rush to try to get beyond  
it. Galen tried to swirl her wine around in the goblet and almost sloshed it  
over herself, sighing quietly as she realized that her hands were starting to  
become unsteady for some reason.

"D, tell me about the women you've loved," she found herself blurting out  
in a quiet tone. A momentary anxiety attack gripped her chest a moment later,  
threatening to cut off her breathing entirely. What the hell am I thinking?  
she thought to herself, trying to take a sip of her wine and barely able to get  
the goblet to her lips without the tremors in her hand spilling any.

She sighed and looked over at him as she heard only silence, seeing him  
staring down into his half-empty cup with a haunted look on his face. Her left  
hand reached out to him of its own accord, very lightly brushing the back of  
her fingers against his cheek. "You already told me about Doris," she added  
quietly. "Please, tell me about the other one, the one who helped you realize  
that you loved Doris."

He lifted his head to look at her, his face composed in a neutral mask of  
unreadable emotions. His eyes, however, spoke quiet clearly of the depth of  
his personal pain and sorrow at the memories. "Why?" he asked simply.

She sighed yet again and looked down at her amethyst wine. "D.... I'm  
starting to like you," she admitted quietly. "When I look at you, I don't see  
just a hunter or a dunpeal, I see.... pain. Sorrow. Loneliness. Part of me  
wants to reach out to you, to ease that pain, that sorrow, that loneliness. I  
already told you that my worst fear is to be utterly alone, and yet.... yet you  
seem to feel that you already are and have been for some time. I want to know  
how you've managed to survive that for so long and still.... and still be so  
human," she whispered, looking up at him.

"I know what you mean about the others being different," she continued.  
"How the other dunpeals acted towards those who weren't their kind. I know  
what you mean about.... having something deep inside, something that doesn't  
like what you see, something that won't let you do as they do. When I look at  
you past your armor of isolation.... I see something I like, a spark of life  
that I haven't seen before. I want to know more about it, just in case...."

"Go on," D said gently, closing his eyes as the heavy weight of his entire  
existence settled around his shoulders once more.

"Just in case that's what's inside me as well," she finished softly. "I  
look at you and I think that.... maybe I've finally found a kindred spirit, a  
person I can relate to and not just understand but be understood as well. I'm  
asking you to tell me about your past, about what you've done and experienced  
and felt, simply so I can try to learn more about myself. If someone like you  
can love, D.... then why can't I? All I want to know is what to look for."

He said nothing as he looked back down into his goblet, trying to study  
the transient reflection amid the amethyst ripples. It seemed that the tiny  
waves cleared out for a moment, just long enough for him to clearly see the  
reflected look of his own eyes. The amount of pain visible made him cringe,  
wondering just how much of it she had been able to see earlier, pain that he  
felt deeply ashamed at being unable to keep to himself and thus not burden her  
soul with worries or concerns.

"Her name was Leila," he said softly before taking a deep drink of the  
wine. He didn't care if the impulse had stemmed from a desire to absorb as  
much of the alcohol as possible to dull the pain of simply speaking her name  
aloud or if he simply didn't want to look at his purple reflection anymore.  
"She was a vampire hunter as well and had joined the Markus brothers in their  
attempt at rescuing Charlotte from Meier Link."

Galen said nothing as she listened to him tell the entire story about the  
failed rescue, about how he had bandaged her shoulder after her solo attack on  
the carriage and all that had happened between them since. She closed her eyes  
as she listened to the quiet, almost inaudible recount of what happened while  
they were trapped by the sandstorm and how they helped one another reawaken not  
just their humanities but the gentle fires of life and love that had been all  
but forgotten in their human souls.

The very end of his story almost made her cry, quietly describing how he  
had kept his promise to Leila. It wasn't the sentiment of bringing a bouquet  
of flowers to her grave that finally sent a single tear down Galen's cheek, but  
the quiet conversation with Leila's grand-daughter and the explanation of why  
the promise had been made in the first place. And, as he departed, the full  
realization of just what Leila had truly meant to him after all.

She gently reached out to him once his soul-weary voice fell silent, her  
hand holding his in a gesture of support, comfort, and understanding. She knew  
that there couldn't be any words that would make his pain any easier, able to  
see the dark and haunted emotions reflected in his eyes as he stared at the  
root walls, looking at the present but seeing only the past.

The little wine that remained in their goblets had long cooled to room  
temperature before either one of them finally moved, Galen squeezing his hand  
tightly as she leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder for a moment. "D?"  
she asked very quietly, the softness of her breath faintly tickling his ear.

"It's late," D said quietly in his usually somber and reserved tone.

"And?" she countered with a faint hint of amusement. "We're both night  
people, it shouldn't bother us."

"We still have a lot of traveling to do in the morning," he replied, not  
looking over at her. "You should try to get some sleep."

She sighed quietly, almost flooding his ear with her breath before turning  
her head aside at the last second. "And what about you?" she inquired as she  
squeezed his hand again. "You going to be alright during the day? We can stay  
put until you're rested and travel at night if you want."

"I'll be fine," he reassured her in a calm, if somewhat hollow tone.

"I don't want to see you get hurt," Galen said, her voice barely more than  
a whisper as she looked at him. She stared into his eyes as he turned to look  
back at her, part of her wanting to scream as she saw that the walls were back  
up once again.

"Galen...." he started to say.

"I don't want to be alone," she breathed. "I don't want to be the last of  
my kind. I'd rather take my own life than have to be the last."

He truly didn't know what to say as he studied the look in her liquid-like  
eyes. Part of him wanted to reassure her that her fears wouldn't come true,  
that it wouldn't ever come to that. But at the same time.... he couldn't make  
her that promise, couldn't tell her that it wouldn't come to that. Their blood  
was cursed with darkness, and the world needed to be free of it forever. They  
would both have to die when this was over. There simply wasn't another way.

Time suddenly seemed to turn to an icy gel without warning, moving along  
at a dangerously sluggish pace as she leaned forward to brush her lips against  
his. It was a very light and hesitant contact, as if she wasn't exactly sure  
she knew what she was doing, but it sent a curious surge of warmth through his  
body even as the chilling shock flooded his veins.

She edged her head back slightly, studying the look in his eyes. "D...."  
she said very softly. "I.... you're.... you're my only hope now," she said,  
her voice fading away entirely as she leaned forward to very softly and gently  
kiss him again.

D struggled hard, not against her or the softness of her lips, but against  
the sudden loss of the sensation of time. He simply had no idea of how long  
their lips remained in contact with one another, not really kissing so much as  
brushing together as lightly as one could and still feel the touch. Her lips  
finally backed away, the information from the rest of his senses rushing back  
into his conscious mind hard enough to physically stun him for a second.

"Wake me in the morning?" she asked softly as she sat back, seeming to be  
on the verge of tears for some reason. A faint hint of a smile crossed her  
face as he simply nodded to her, clearly unable to remember how his voice box  
worked at the moment. "Good night, D," she whispered as she rose to her feet,  
silently making her way towards the wall opposite the exit ramp.

He said nothing as he watched her grab a thick root that ran the length of  
the ceiling. He couldn't have said anything if his life depended on it, his  
mind in total chaos as he watched her hands and feet start to darken and gnarl,  
hugging the ceiling tighter as she dug in. Her cape folded around her a few  
moments later, taking on the color and texture of tree-bark as it molded and  
hardened into a cocoon-like shell that only left a long tuft of blue-green hair  
visible.

((D?)) the thing spoke up a few moments after the cracks and snaps of the  
morphing cape had fallen silent. ((I can feel the shell-shock from here. She  
didn't zap you with anything in that kiss, did she? D?))

"I'm fine," he rasped, closing his eyes as his voice seemed to physically  
grate against the back of his throat. The last mouthful of tepid wine left in  
the goblet seemed to ease the sudden dryness, the alcohol seeming to burn like  
liquid hellfire on contact before the sensation abated.

((Right,)) it replied, clearly not believing him. ((D, listen....))

The voice fell silent as D turned his hand around, giving the thing a look  
that would have frightened anyone who saw it. "I will not say this again," he  
said in a very low tone, his lips pulling back to expose the edges of his sharp  
fangs. "Stay out of this."

((Alright,)) it said in a tone of heavy resignation. It remained quiet for  
a number of moments before adding, ((Oh, and about that just-drown-the-parasite  
advice she gave you earlier? It'll take longer than twenty minutes, so don't  
get your hopes up.))

It took him a moment to calm down long enough to think rationally. "So  
how long would it take?" he asked.

A soft sigh echoed in his mind as it drew in a quiet breath. ((Stop and  
think about this one, okay? How many times have you taken a dip in a river or  
a pool or whatever for longer than twenty minutes and I didn't say a word? So  
either I'm different than the symbiots she's met or she doesn't know what she's  
talking about, as I can take in a LOT of air if you give me a moment. Trust  
me, holding my breath is easy.))

"How long?" D repeated in an eerily calm tone.

((You really want to be rid of me that badly, eh?)) it said in a voice that  
is best described as terminally depressed. ((Honestly? Probably a good twelve  
hours or so. Less if I'm surprised, more if I have time to really prepare.  
And I think we both know just how difficult I can make life for you during that  
entire timeframe,)) it added darkly. ((Question for you, though. Why now? You  
never really seemed to want to get rid of me before. Well, aside from when I  
would needle you for a reaction, but that was to be expected. Finally reached  
your limit, D? Or am I no longer of any use to you now that you've killed all  
the vampires and just have Galen left to deal with? I'm waiting,)) it prodded  
as D remained silent. ((If nothing else, you owe me a truthful answer. After  
all, I've saved your ass plenty of times before, so there's that little....))

"Enough," D said quietly as he closed his eyes.

((So what are you going to do with her, anyway?)) it inquired. ((If you had  
the balls to listen to me, you'd realize that I can help the two.... !!!))

He didn't even bother opening his eyes to look, instead simply slamming  
the palm of his hand down on the hard-packed edge of the pit. The thing made  
a soft psionic grunt as a wedge of dirt wound up in its mouth, taking its time  
in chewing it up and swallowing it. It remained silent after that, apparently  
getting the hint that its dunpeal host really wasn't kidding about not wanting  
to hear it try to help him deal with Galen.

D sighed silently as he tried to make himself comfortable, not an easy  
task given the fact that he was solidly buried up to his armpits in soil. Not  
that it was so packed down as to render him immobile, but it was just enough to  
ensure than he wouldn't be moving anywhere without a concerted effort. He  
finally settled for tilting his head back slightly, resting his neck on a sort  
of incline that had been made in the burying process.

He could almost taste the super-light kiss that lingered on his lips, the  
sensation seeming to haunt him just slightly. The gesture had taken him by  
surprise, not that he wasn't expecting her to finally do so but that he had  
been too busy thinking to pay attention. Again.

A deep sigh rose up from his chest as he remembered the last time he had  
been caught off-guard by a soft kiss. Leila's image rose up to fill his mind  
once more, teasing him with the memory of her gentle touch, her soft kiss, and  
the warmth of her body surrounding his. She had lured him to her, called to  
him, seduced him, left him panting for breath among the ashes of her satisfied  
lust.... and her love. Doris had opened his heart to expose his humanity, but  
it had taken Leila's touch to pry that open and bathe it the warmth of love.

And now Galen.... what was she doing? What part of him was she trying to  
reach out to, to awaken, to hold? Or was she simply doing what she said, using  
him to examine herself, listening to his words, his pain, and his past? Would  
it be bad for him to let himself be used so? He would be cast away once his  
usefulness had ended of course, but still.... that's how it worked, right?

But.... Galen wasn't like the others, was she?

And Leila had certainly shown him that being used wasn't always bad....

The shroud of thoughts continued to swirl around him as the quiet tug of  
the earth's comforting grip on his body drew him down into the realm of sleep  
and dreams, part of him smiling quietly at the memory of Leila and all that she  
had meant to him. And still did.


	4. Day 3 Galen's Burrow

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.)

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

((Day 3 - Galen's Burrow))

As before, it was the gentle tug of the rising sun on his soul that woke  
him up from the foggy existence between a dreamless sleep and sleepless dreams.  
The level of light in the room was unchanged as he opened his eyes, figuring  
that a door or covering of some sort was shielding the chamber from the morning  
rays of light.

It only took a few short seconds to unearth himself, using his renewed  
strength to pull his body out of the soil. What took far longer, however, was  
getting the worst of the dirt out of every place imaginable plus a few others  
that he hadn't readily thought was possible. Finding dirt in your boots was a  
given, but how could so much of it end up packed in his navel like that? And  
that didn't even cover how much wound up in his underwear....

Once that task was done, he spent the next few minutes using the shovel to  
'make the bed' as it were, digging out a deep hollow to make it available the  
next time Galen needed to use it. The rest of the soil was scraped together  
and put back in the container, moving it aside before going over to the barrel  
of collected rain-water. A ladle hanging from a hook was all he needed to wash  
the dirt off his hands, letting the runoff flow into a ditch apparently carved  
out for just that purpose.

((Mmmph?)) it suddenly grunted, causing D to pause with his hand still over  
the ditch. ((Mrrph.... mmmrrkkk, mmmghph.... GAAAAHK)) it horked as a clod of  
dirt was finally expelled with the force of a clay bullet. ((Hrrrrk, what an  
aftertaste. Don't get me wrong, that was nice and rich in nitrogen with just  
a hint of sulphur, but the level of phosphate in that.... bleh.))

D said nothing as he reached for the ladle again, scooping up more water  
and pouring it over the palm of his hand. He ignored the slurping sounds it  
made as it inhaled the water, turning his hand back around when it was finished  
making swishing noises to itself. A small stream of dark brown water jetted  
out into the ditch, followed by a deep sigh of satisfaction.

((Thanks, D, I needed that,)) it said gratefully.

"You're welcome," he replied with just a hint of dryness. He carefully  
studied the room, finally able to truly get a feel for it now that he wasn't  
fixed in one location. The underground chamber wasn't all that large, but it  
was roomy enough to be a suitable place to cuddle with an intimate friend when  
you really weren't interested in large tracts of personal space.

The ceiling was a lot lower than he had thought it was, able to reach up  
and brush the overhead roots without fully extending his arm. An idle glance  
at the ramp showed that a layer of matted foliage had been placed over the  
archway, thick enough to block almost all the light while really blending in  
with the surroundings. Curious, he approached the barrier and tried to move it  
aside, surprised to see that it was actually a sturdy frame that was mounted on  
a hinge just like a door.

He winced as he was greeted by the blinding glare of the morning sun, the  
topmost edge of the burning sphere just clearing the treeline. He could feel  
it already starting to weaken him, but he was strong enough now to be able to  
withstand full exposure for at least a week, maybe two if he didn't have to  
exhaust himself in high-energy combat again.

((Ahh, don't you just love those east-facing bedroom doors?)) it chuckled.  
((Galen must not have been kidding about being able to draw strength from a nap  
in a tree to ward off the sun if she let the door face this direction.))

He cast a dark glare down at his hand at the casual mention of her name.  
"Ask the rabbits," he said calmly. "They built their burrow here first."

((Oh,)) it replied a moment later. ((That's right, they did, didn't they?  
Well, no matter, you probably can't blame them for wanting a little sun in the  
morning, now can you? It probably gets awfully dark and cold in those tiny  
underground burrows. Especially during the winter-time. That's not too far  
off in the future, you know. Think this place keeps warm when the snow starts  
to blanket the area? At least, when it's not being used as a love-nest. Now  
there's irony for you, using a rabbit burrow for that. Kinda gives new meaning  
to the term snuggle-bunny, eh?))

D said nothing as he strode up the ramp and into the sunlight, looking  
around the immediate area for a suitable tree or bush. A fairly large thicket  
was visible a few dozen yards away, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the  
realization that it didn't appear to be native to the rest of the plant-life  
in this part of the wooded area.

((Hey, what's wrong?)) it spoke up as it sensed a change in D's mood.

"That bush shouldn't be here," he said slowly, wondering if he should go  
back and get his sword. "It's the wrong species for this region."

((What, you expected a wooden structure with the word 'outhouse' painted on  
it with a neon arrow?)) it countered with a scoffing noise. ((I'll bet you quite  
a lot that it was transplanted here when they terraformed everything. I mean,  
just look at it.... dense foliage for privacy, not too close to the burrow to  
smell, large and relatively soft leaves for.... well, you get the idea. At  
least it tries to blend in with everything else.))

He decided it had made a very valid case and went over to take a closer  
look at the bush, not surprised that it was exactly it had said it would be.  
He stopped to look around, finding where his mount had been tied to on a rather  
lengthy tether. He headed over to it, patting it gently as he grabbed the roll  
of rapidly-degradable toilet paper from the saddle-bags to make his life just  
a little easier.

He left the roll prominently hanging from a branch and returned to Galen's  
burrow, pausing for a moment to study it from the outside. The host tree was  
largest one around, the nearest one in terms of size being a good six or seven  
hundred yards away. It would be rather hard to miss if you actually got close  
to the trunk, but from a distance it wouldn't be too much of a curiosity. He  
didn't know where the trail was in relation to the burrow, but he was willing  
to bet that casual travelers wouldn't be able to see it.

The cocoon was still securely hanging from the ceiling as he descended the  
ramp, the lower half bathed in the orangish-yellow radiance of the sun. The  
glow was cut off as D moved the matting back into place, reducing the amount of  
light to almost nothing. He waited until his eyes had adjusted back to the  
near-darkness before moving over to the cocoon, looking up to study the mass of  
blue-green hair hanging down from the end.

((D?)) it spoke up very quietly as he started to reach out to touch her hair  
as he had done the previous two days. ((I really think you should let me tell  
you what I think is going on between the two of you.))

"I don't care what you think," he said in a very low tone, dropping his  
voice to a whisper so he wouldn't disturb her.

((But you care about her,)) it countered immediately. ((And deny it all you  
want, deep down inside that heart of yours you know damn well that you do. I  
just don't want to see you continue to suffer, D, that's all. Honest.))

"Then shut up," he said flatly. He waited to see if there would be more,  
hearing only the softest of disgruntled mutterings in both his ears and in his  
mind. Satisfied for the moment that it was finished, he very slowly reached up  
to run his fingertips through her soft mane of hair.

The soft buzzing noise started up almost immediately, lasting for so long  
that he knew she was definitely taking her time in waking up. He found that he  
really didn't mind the delay, not really being in any great rush to reach the  
end of their journey. The realization was almost enough to make him stop his  
gentle caress of her hair and step back, wondering if the comment last night  
about her kiss possibly having an effect had any truth to it.

His hand stayed where it was, moving in a slow and gentle rhythm as the  
cape slowly fell away from her body with a soft cracking sound. She began to  
relax her arms, slowly bringing her head down to where she could look directly  
into his eyes. The insectoid features of her face melted away a moment later,  
leaving her exotic beauty untouched by any outward manifestation of her unique  
hybrid nature.

He paused slightly as she adjusted her clawed grip on the root, seeming to  
edge slightly closer to him. "Good morning," she whispered softly.

"Morning," D replied calmly as he lowered his hand to his side.

"D.... I didn't upset you last night, did I?" she asked, her voice still  
little more than a soft whisper.

"No," he said with a very subtle shake of his head. He paused and held  
perfectly still as she leaned forward, very gently brushing her lips against  
his in a soft kiss. It wasn't the most graceful of gestures, given the fact  
that she was hanging upside-down from the ceiling, but that didn't have any  
impact on the way the kiss left a rather delightfully electric sensation on his  
lips when she finally edged back.

"I'm not much of a morning person either, you know," she breathed softly.  
"But being woken up by you.... like this.... it just keeps getting better and  
better each time. It makes me wonder what the next morning will be like. Or  
does that thought bother you?" she added softly as she tried to read the look  
on his face.

D said nothing as he took a step back, giving her plenty of space to lower  
herself down to the ground. She seemed to do so with deliberate slowness, her  
arm and leg muscles flexing and tightening as they bore the full brunt of her  
weight. He couldn't help but be impressed by the display of both strength and  
grace, her body moving with almost cat-like fluidity as she finally let go of  
the root structure.

"You mind waiting here for a few moments?" she inquired as she bent down  
to grab her boots.

"I left a roll of toilet paper on a branch for you," he said impassively,  
causing her head to snap up to give him a surprised look.

"Thank you," she said after a slight hesitation, the faintest hint of a  
blush rising up to tint her pale cheeks. She quickly slipped the boots on and  
headed for the ramp, pausing to cast a final glance over her shoulder at him  
before pushing the matting aside.

((What are we going to do with you?)) the voice sighed as the covered door  
was closed behind her, returning the chamber to semi-darkness. The amount of  
light seeping in around the archway had increased as the bulk of the sun rose  
above the treeline, allowing several pinhole-sized beams of light to lance out  
across the empty air like so many low-intensity lasers.

((So have you given any thought to what you're going to do once this mess  
is over?)) it prodded him quietly, causing D to suddenly hold very still. ((I  
mean, this assumes you're not going to be a coward and slit your throat open  
and let the worms feed on your corpse. What good will that do, hmm? Even with  
as much as you say you dislike yourself, I think you've come to like what life  
has to offer you as of late.))

"I am rapidly losing my tolerance for you," D said very calmly.

A dark sigh rose up from his left hand. ((Look, I really don't mean to be  
a pimple on your ass, D, but my parasitic life is tied to yours, remember? If  
you die, so do I, and unlike you I happen to like existing. That kind of gives  
me a little incentive to try to keep you alive as well, don't you think? Or am  
I supposed to just stand aside and let you obliterate us both? It doesn't have  
to end with your death, you know.))

"We've discussed this before," he reminded it in a warning tone.

((Yeah, well, that was before this new opportunity arose,)) it countered.  
((Now we have Galen to deal with, and that's...? D....)) it suddenly said in a  
very apprehensive tone as it heard a dagger being withdrawn.

D tried to keep his breathing under control as he pressed the tip of the  
dagger against his left palm, right between and just above the wrinkles where  
its eyes were. "Do not...." he said very slowly and distinctly, "Mention her  
to me again. I didn't ask for your company to start with, and I have never  
asked for your opinion. I tolerate you because you are a useful and powerful  
ally, not because I like you. My patience with you is at an end now. If you  
will not stay silent, I will silence you myself. Do you understand?"

((Yes, D,)) it replied in a voice as cold as arctic tundra. ((I understand  
you perfectly. You know where to find me if you need something.))

He said nothing as the voice fell silent, the face embedded in his hand  
melting back into his skin to become little more than a few unusually deep  
wrinkles in his palm. The dark anger seemed to leave him a moment later, the  
dagger almost slipping from his fingers as he wondered just what the hell was  
wrong with him. Certainly it had pissed him off before, but never had it been  
able to get under his skin that deeply.... and why? Not just why was it  
bothering him so, but why was he so bothered by even thinking of her?

His hand seemed to move without conscious effort, returning the dagger to  
the empty sheath on his belt just as the matting was opened up. He sighed and  
turned away from the fierce glare of the light, seeming to hit him harder than  
usual given the fact that he had just moments ago been in moderate darkness.

"Sorry," Galen apologized quietly as she left the door-like barrier open  
to add some light to the underground chamber. "I put the toilet paper back in  
the saddle-bag. Thank you," she added with distinct gratitude as she headed  
over to the barrel of rain-water to rinse her hands.

D simply nodded his head, knowing that a life spent in constant travel  
didn't mean he had to give up all the creature comforts one found in any  
civilization. The ones that wouldn't fit in a saddle-bag or required a power  
source were always the first to go, but somehow the most basic of the basics  
found a way to persist in one form or another.

He paused as she moved back over to him, a small frown crossing her face  
as she lightly brushed her hand across the front of his dark tunic. A small  
cloud of dust wafted up from the contact, the tiny particles sparkling in the  
beams of sunlight like microscopic fireflies drifting around on a lazy current  
of air. "You need a bath," she pointed out in a slightly disgruntled tone.

"It can wait," he said calmly, figuring that he could find a river or a  
small lake somewhere along the way. Either that or wait for the next time it  
rained, one of the two.

She shot him a remotely unamused look as she wrinkled her nose. "Your  
horse might not care, but I'd strongly prefer if you dealt with that before you  
start to reek. There's a fork down the road ahead, probably take us most of  
the day to reach it. My mother's grave is on the north-west fork, but if you  
take the south fork for about an hour you'll find a small human frontier town.  
We should be able to find a clean bed, a warm shower, and a decent meal for a  
fair price. We'll lose a couple of hours, of course, but at our current pace  
we'll still reach her well before sundown the day after tomorrow."

He looked at her in silence for a moment, wondering if there was something  
more than the face-value of her words to consider. He had no great love for  
social interaction, with humans or anyone else, but at least he knew he could  
deal with humans well enough despite their chaotic tendencies. A frontier town  
meant that they would be even more reserved and coarse than usual, but it was  
a perfectly understandable attitude to develop when one lived on the very edge  
of civilization in a rather unfriendly wilderness area.

"Besides," she added coyly, giving him a look that made his blood chill  
for a brief instant, "After the dinner we had last night? I wouldn't want to  
even look at more trail rations, let alone have to eat them."

"Very well," D said calmly, knowing that she had spoken that one with pure  
and absolute sincerity. The dried rations weren't exactly his favorite either,  
but after living off of them for so long it would have been a lie to say that  
he hadn't adapted to the coarse textures and bland flavors. And it had been  
quite some time since he had allowed himself to indulge in some wine, providing  
for a very flavorful contrast....

"Good," she said with a smile as she reached out, intending to give his  
shoulder a gentle squeeze. She paused as she encountered the very well-crafted  
plates of his armor, remembering being surprised by its discovery last night as  
she buried him in the ground.

D said nothing as she gently rapped a knuckle against his shoulder, the  
metallic sound gently echoing back at her. "Forgot about that," she said in a  
quiet tone. "I don't know who designed this armor for you, D, but they did a  
superb job. You almost can't tell that you're wearing it. Hold still," she  
added as she did a very quick poke-test to determine what the shell-like armor  
protected and what it left vulnerable. "Just the upper-body?" she inquired.

"Most vampires and beasts go for the chest or throat," D explained calmly  
as he turned around, heading over to the corner of the room to retrieve the  
rest of his clothing. "The design offers the most protection against the most  
likely targets while allowing me to still remain unencumbered and able to move  
freely. Deliberately non-fatal attacks from weapons like yours are rare," he  
added as he slipped on his cape and sword scabbard.

He paused and cast a glance over his shoulder as he heard the soft whisper  
of her rapier being drawn, turning around to face her as she whipped the sharp  
tip through the air to create a soft buzzing sound. His eyes narrowed to mere  
slits as she approached him, her platinum-silver weapon carefully held at the  
ready. He remained silent as he put his hat on, adjusting the brim slightly  
before lowering his hand and remaining perfectly still.

The super-sharp point of her rapier made just the slightest of noises as  
it was casually tapped against the center of his chest, the faint echo of metal  
meeting armor registering on both their ears. She carefully struck at him with  
a feather-light touch, the rapier making only the most superficial of contacts  
with various points on his upper body where major nerves were known to cluster.  
In each case the point was blocked by his armor, creating very soft pings and  
rings of resonating metal.

A look of amusement crossed her face as she stared up at him, her rapier  
suddenly flashing down at a steep angle. A delicate blue-green eyebrow was  
raised as the slender shaft of her weapon was brought up into his groin, moving  
hard enough to have truly gotten his attention if it hadn't been blocked by a  
smaller piece of armor plating protecting a distinctly sensitive spot.

Their eyes met in silence, and for one instant it seemed that he might  
have thought about smiling at her. "Trust me," he said quietly, the dryness in  
his tone indicating that he didn't need to say anything else about that one.

"Curiosity, hunter, nothing more," Galen said demurely as she slid the  
weapon upwards, sliding the metal shaft along the groove of his thigh before  
swinging it away from his body. The weapon was returned to the scabbard on her  
belt and the edge of the cape tucked over it, her liquid-like eyes looking over  
the dusty lines of his dark clothing.

She glanced up at his eyes and smiled at him, not entirely sure why she  
was doing so. "Go get the horse ready," she said softly. "I need to finish  
cleaning up in here since I'm not sure when I'll be back."

He nodded in understanding and turned to leave, pausing as he felt her  
hand gently touch his wrist. He turned to look at her just as she gave a firm  
tug, causing him to edge forward just enough to bring his lips into very soft  
contact with hers. The sheer surprise of the gesture produced yet another odd  
disconnect in his mind, making it impossible to tell just how much time had  
passed before the gentle kiss was broken and she edged away.

"Thank you for opening up to me last night," she whispered softly as she  
gazed into the depths of his eyes, the exotic blue-green structure of her eyes  
seeming to be even more liquid than usual. "I think I'm finally beginning to  
understand you, D."

It was one of those moments in which he didn't know what to say. All he  
could do was nod slightly before turning away, unable to reply to something he  
didn't even understand for himself. He left the underground burrow without  
looking back, not sure how he would react to seeing the emotion in her eyes,  
any emotion. Part of him realized that she was starting to weave a web  
around him, seeking to trap him in a mesh of feelings as a spider would snare  
a passing insect. He truly didn't know if it was conscious or not, if it was  
intentional or not, or even what her true intentions were. All he knew was  
that if the web was finished, things would get very uncomfortable for him.

A stray memory rose up from his mind as he untethered the horse and made  
sure everything was still secured. May you live in interesting times, someone  
had once said to him, only later explaining how some of the ancient humans had  
viewed that phrase as a curse. Indeed, D thought to himself as he climbed into  
the saddle and gently urged the mount over towards the burrow entrance. This  
has definitely been.... interesting.

A second thought rose up from the dark recesses of his memory, the simple  
realization registering so forcefully on his mind that it almost caused him to  
slip out of the saddle. He recovered just as Galen stepped out of the burrow,  
carefully sealing the matting behind her and fluffing the edges out to help it  
blend in to the landscape. He automatically reached down to help her into the  
saddle in front of him, his eyes seeing the gentle smile on her face but his  
mind seeing something else entirely.

Doris had tried to lure him into the web of her emotions, fragile strands  
hesitantly reaching out to him as he lay on the rug before the fireplace. He  
had yielded to her, but only after the call of her moon-blood proved to be too  
strong to resist, and so he had spent the night trapped in that web....

Leila had likewise ensnared him in as neat a web as any woman could weave,  
luring him into her embrace as a siren would a lonely sailor. She had used her  
body as bait, but it was her heart and soul that finally reached out to claim  
him as hers....

And he had loved both women, not realizing the webs for what they were  
until long after the threads has been broken by the passage of time. Only the  
residue remained, still wrapped around the part of his heart where they had  
anchored themselves to him even as they loved him in their own unique ways.  
And now with Galen trying to reach out to him as well, with the softness of her  
voice and the even softer feeling of her lips against his....

"D?" she asked quietly, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked up to  
find her twisted around in the saddle, giving him a slightly puzzled look as  
she sought to make sense of the brooding look on his face. "You okay?"

He nodded to her before quietly adding, "I just have a lot on my mind."

She tilted her head at a slight angle, regarding him carefully as she idly  
toyed with the reins. "Tell me something.... do you always have something on  
your mind like that, or is this just one of those weeks for you?"

The silence hung in the air for a few moments before he opened his mouth  
to speak. The voice that was heard, however, was clearly not his own. ((Trust  
me,)) it spoke up in a calm, empty tone. ((This has been one of those months.  
Just leave him alone, he'll figure it out sooner or later.))

Galen shrugged to herself, missing the dark look D cast at his left hand.  
"I think I know what you mean. Somewhat," she added lightly, looking up to  
give D a sultry look. "I have monthly issues as well, but that refers to the  
timing and not the duration. Still, I know the feeling," she said with a soft  
smile and a wink that he almost missed.

"Let's go," D replied in an unamused tone, drawing a laugh and a pat on  
the leg from his female companion. A gentle flick on the reins set them into  
motion once again, first heading south to reach the road and then turning into  
the burning disc of the sun for another long day's ride towards the east.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was both surprised and grateful when she didn't make any attempt at  
trying to talk to him during the journey. As before, they rested at several  
places along the way to water and feed the horse. The forest was starting to  
thicken up as they went, the overhead foliage starting to provide enough cover  
and shade to blunt the worst of the weakening effects of the overhead sun.

The silence gave him more than enough time to think, to try to sort out  
just what in the hell he was going to do with her when they reached the end of  
their travels. He couldn't see himself killing her, driving his sword into her  
chest to sunder her heart as he had all too easily done to Count Niles. Nor  
could he see himself simply walking away and leaving her to her own devices,  
not as long as she held vampiric blood in her veins.

Not while she still had the power of creation in her body.

The legends were both right and wrong about how vampires could be created.  
The true vampires, the so-called nobles, had evolved over the ages into a new  
species of sentient being. They were every bit as sexually functional as their  
ancient human ancestors, bearing children of their own kind. They could even  
breed with humans, the result being dunpeals like himself and Galen.

However, they could also be created with the infection of the dark blood.  
A simple bite alone from a full-blooded vampire is enough to make the victim  
vulnerable to their willpower and domination, but that wouldn't cause them to  
undergo the irreversible transformation into blood-thirsty creatures of the  
night. What was needed was often termed a blood marriage, the vampire draining  
his bride-to-be almost to the point of death before offering her a taste of his  
own blood to seal the bond between them. The infection, concentrated in his  
blood, could then easily spread throughout the weakened victim's veins and thus  
forever taint her body with its curse. Those who were born tended to look down  
on those who were created, the former calling themselves nobles while giving  
the latter the epithet of commoner. Both, however, were equal in power and in  
the utter destruction of their humanities.

Dunpeals, however, were different. The curse in their blood wasn't nearly  
as strong or as potent, unable to spread the infection through a casual bite.  
A dunpeal could perform a blood marriage, however, but the result would not be  
a living noble vampire. Their tainted blood instead trapped the victim in a  
state between life and death, twisting their bodies into vampire-like forms  
that were called zombies by the humans. The shock of being changed seemed to  
always unhinge the human mind, corrupting it with madness and destroying the  
spark of intellect that it once had.

D had never tried to create a zombie, but he had destroyed more than his  
fair share of the foul creatures. It seemed that noble vampires could create  
them as well, but the process required some sort of modification that he had  
yet to figure out to this day. He suspected it wasn't a widely-shared secret,  
as he only encountered zombies in certain areas and always all grouped under  
the control of the same master or mistress.

He almost asked her if she had tried to 'gift' another with her dark kiss,  
easily able to picture her sipping the blood from a young man's throat but not  
able to imagine her opening up a vein to feed him in return. Or, for that  
matter, trying to order a bunch of zombies around to do her bidding. Perhaps  
it was just him, but she really didn't seem like that kind of dunpeal. But by  
the same token.... could he really afford to overlook that risk?

He soon found himself staring at her, studying the back and sides of her  
head as they rode in silence. The points on her ears were a little sharper  
than most, perhaps due to her Barbaroi blood. Her hair was likewise a hallmark  
of her inhuman blood, creating a soft cascade that he was starting to find more  
than a little mesmerizing. Perhaps it had been the soft feel of it beneath his  
fingertips when he had woken her up, or maybe the gentle fragrance he seemed to  
remember tickling his nose yesterday....

He blinked and almost jerked back as he refocused, suddenly realizing that  
he had started to lean over to her. The fading impulse registered on his mind  
before it vanished like a ghost, wanting to inhale her scent and savor it for  
some reason. A quick search of his memories revealed other momentary impulses  
that he had discarded without realizing them, the urge to reach up and touch  
her hand, to feel her fingers intertwine among his in a gentle grip, to lean  
forward to nuzzle her hair, the nape of her neck, the exposed portions of her  
soft and pale skin, to lean her back and taste her lips once again....

The gentle touch of her finger on the tip of his nose almost shocked his  
bladder into activity, causing him to lurch back in surprise as if he had been  
struck with a lightning bolt. Her eyes widened at the sudden reaction, edging  
forward in the saddle as much as she could to put a bit of space between them.

"D?" she asked carefully once she saw he had gotten himself back under  
control. "I didn't mean to startle you like that, but.... you alright?"

He looked at her with a slightly harried expression before he slowly let  
his breath out, his face darkening at being caught so completely off-guard. He  
remained silent for a number of moments before finally drawing a soft breath to  
reply to her. "I was.... just thinking, that's all," he said quietly.

"About what?" she prodded carefully. "I don't want you to take this the  
wrong way, but the look on your face was starting to give me goose-bumps. You  
sure you're alright, D?" she said, casting a brief glance at the road ahead to  
make sure she wouldn't steer the mount into a tree or anything. Not that she  
feared it was stupid enough to actually bump into one even if told to, but that  
she might encounter a low-hanging branch to put a dent in both her head and her  
somber mood.

"What do you know about zombies?" he asked, taking them both by surprise.  
His expression didn't change to give her any indication that it was something  
he had said purely on impulse, something that he very rarely allowed himself to  
do. Her expression seemed to flicker with brief puzzlement before becoming  
something else, a sort of veil of sadness crossing her face only to vanish as  
she turned back around in the saddle.

"I assume you're not asking me if I know of any tips on how to hunt them  
down," she said quietly without looking over her shoulder. She sighed heavily  
and flicked the reins, encouraging the mount to increase his pace to a steady  
trot. "I won't lie, D, I've made two of my own. Bear in mind this was back  
when I was a teenager, wondering about the extent of my powers once I came to  
the conclusion that being one-quarter Barbarois changed the equation more than  
either of my parents realized."

"What became of them?" D asked in a quiet tone. His voice wasn't flat or  
harsh, but she could clearly make out the undercurrent of disapproval as he  
spoke to her.

"I destroyed them, of course," she replied softly. "The first was a young  
fop of a man who claimed he loved me and wanted to be as immortal as I was so  
that we could be together for eternity. I was a young girl, still a maiden and  
somewhat naive about men, so I eventually gave him both my body and my blood.  
He attacked me in a rage as he was transformed and would not relent, so I had  
no choice but to defend myself against him."

"And the other?" he prompted, his voice still quiet and empty of warmth.

"What I thought was an act of mercy," she said in an even quieter tone.  
"A woman I found on a trail who was a victim of a bandit attack, robbed of her  
purse, her virtue, and nearly her life. I thought that I could save her if she  
had the strength of my kind. I tried to explain it to her as best I could but  
she begged me to do it before she could bleed out. I could tell that she would  
indeed die soon, and so I made a cut on my wrist and let her feed."

He remained silent as her voice trailed off, clearly filled with regret  
and sorrow over what she had done. He could imagine what had happened next,  
the dying woman quickly being transformed into little more than a warmed corpse  
as her mind was reduced to a mere cinder of what it once was. Whatever it was  
that made humans so.... human would have been destroyed in a moment, leaving  
behind only a savage beast that could only act on instinct unless its will was  
dominated by its creator. Thus already near death and without control, it most  
likely would have lashed out as the other one had, leaving Galen with no other  
choice but to permanently render it lifeless.

"I never dared share my blood again," she finally whispered, seeming to  
speak more to herself than to D. "At least, not to anyone who wasn't one of  
our kind. A vampire kissed me once, seeking to woo and seduce me in order to  
gain an influence on my father. It was.... dangerously erotic. The intensity  
frightened me and I resisted him. My father was not pleased to learn what had  
taken place and forbade me from allowing such a thing to happen again. When I  
later asked him about it, once his temper had cooled, he said that such a thing  
was more intimate than sex and should be treated as such, revered with the same  
passion and level of caring that needed to be present for physical intimacy to  
be worthwhile enough to indulge in. I didn't realize what he meant until I met  
Mikhail and gained a true appreciation for such things."

She sighed softly at the memories of her past lover, casting the briefest  
of glances over her shoulder at the dunpeal riding behind her. "I bit him by  
accident once, during the height of an unusually fiery passion. His blood only  
fueled the fires inside me, and I might have taken far more blood had he not  
whispered my name. The pain in his voice brought me out of the bloodlust, and  
it was quite some time before I allowed myself to relax in his arms again. He  
told me that it had hurt but that he hadn't minded tending to my needs, only  
asking that I warn him ahead of time if I wanted to sample his blood again. It  
must have been a full year before I finally yielded to his gentle words and far  
gentler touch, to taste his blood once again even as it burned with his desire  
for me and the love he felt in his human heart."

She sighed again and twisted around in the saddle to look at him, her eyes  
seeming to be little more than blue-green puddles of liquid sorrow. "D, was I  
really wrong in giving him the pleasure of my dark kiss?" she asked in a soft  
tone, the intensity of her emotions making her voice sound as fragile as newly-  
cast glass. "To share with him part of what I really am? If such a thing can  
be shared among our kind, supposedly within the same bonds as sex and love, why  
can't it be shared with a human in the same way?"

He looked at her in silence for a moment, wondering why she was asking him  
such a thing. There was something in her eyes that he found deeply disturbing,  
rattling him just enough to give in to his dark curiosity. "Why does it matter  
what I think?" he inquired calmly. "It is not for me to judge anyone else."

The saddle almost jerked out from underneath him as she brought the mount  
to a halt, the sudden change in inertia rocking them both. Her eyes seemed to  
bore straight through him, suddenly filled with indignation. "Do you ever stop  
to listen to yourself?" she demanded. "You have acted as a judge of others for  
your entire life, damning vampires and dunpeals alike who do not measure up to  
your personal standards of justice. You who have sworn to destroy evil now say  
is not for you to stand in judgment of what defines that evil? If not, then  
what courts have you taken the others to, what laws have you accused them of  
violating? If you have not acted as judge, jury, and executioner for all these  
centuries, bringing our kind to extinction for their crimes, then who has?"

She blinked and said nothing as he suddenly dismounted, the dirt crunching  
beneath his boots as he walked over to the nearest tree. A frown crossed her  
face as he reached out to touch the trunk, seeming to hold onto it for a few  
seconds before edging closer to rest his shoulder against it. Sighing quietly,  
she climbed down from the saddle as well and went over to him, pausing a few  
paces away as she suddenly realized that he was shaking lightly.

"D?" she called out softly, suddenly unsure of the situation.

"I never intended to be a judge," he said very quietly, his voice audibly  
shaking with barely-contained emotion. "All I wanted to do was right a great  
wrong, put a terrible injustice to rest for good. Nothing more."

He closed his eyes as he felt her touch, first on the armored plates of  
his shoulders, then on the unarmored flesh of his wrist. He felt her other  
hand touch his face, turning him around to look at her. His eyes opened after  
a moment, finding a look of slight confusion in her oddly colored eyes.

"So why did you do it, then?" she asked, her soft tone free from any hint  
of reproachment or condemnation. "Vengeance I can understand, wanting to see  
justice brought to those who killed your mother. But what about the others?  
What of those who had nothing to do with the attacks on the palace or innocent  
humans? Why did they have to die?"

It took him a moment to find the proper reply to her. "Someone once said  
to me that all that evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing," he  
replied quietly. "I felt that I needed to do something, that with all I had  
seen and heard about the injustice, the wrongness of what vampires had done, I  
felt I was being given a duty to see this evil ended. I felt I had no choice  
but to see this ended."

"Ahh, I see," she said with a slow nod. "So the judgment had already been  
made then, and you were not the judge but merely the executioner? D...." she  
whispered as he suddenly turned from her. She pulled him back and slid her  
arms around him, drawing him into a soft and gentle embrace. "I understand,"  
she said simply.

It was one of those rare moments when D was almost brought to tears, the  
moisture starting to leak from his tear-ducts but not enough to make it fall.  
His sense of the passage of time disconnected itself again as he let her hold  
him, taking comfort from the warmth of her body pressed against his. There was  
something about the feeling that started to make him wish, not just wish but  
actively want for time to remain frozen, for the sands to stay stuck in mid-  
motion in the hourglass while he simply held her.

His senses started to reawaken one by one, slowly restoring a feeling of  
the passage of time once again. Her breathing was slow and steady as she held  
him, her chest gently expanding and contracting as it pressed again him. Her  
skin-scent and the smell of her hair teased his nose, a gentle and airy, nearly  
flowery smell that was almost physically soothed him. And her pulse....

It was the beginnings of desire that finally brought him out of the sort  
of emotional haven he had slipped into. Had it been a simple physical desire  
for her, he could have dealt with it as easily as he had dealt with such things  
in the past. But it had been a desire for blood, a more than simple curiosity  
about what her blood tasted like and a musing how she might react to having her  
own life-force sampled like a sip of the most fragrant of wines.

He gently pushed himself away from her, having learned from his mistake  
long ago in rejecting Doris' initial offering of herself. He didn't want to  
take Galen's blood, not now.... but neither could he bring himself to slam the  
door shut on that, to forever cut him off from that possibility. He had come  
to appreciate the willing gift of blood from others, first Doris, then Leila,  
then the other women he had yielded to over the years, and part of him didn't,  
simply couldn't bring himself to deny Galen the same.... pleasure, the same  
satisfaction of giving him life and comfort and even satisfaction of his own.  
And if anyone could truly understand that one, it would be another dunpeal....

"D?" she said quietly, tilting his chin down just slightly so they could  
look into one another's eyes. "I really do understand how you feel. It's just  
that nobody else would have understood if you didn't tell them yourself. Just  
think of it as one more reason not to hide behind your armor, to open yourself  
up to others just a little bit more."

He simply nodded to her, realizing that there was a few grains of wisdom  
to be found in her words. He almost sighed as she leaned closer, once again  
feeling her lips brush very softly against his. It wasn't the delightfully  
electric feeling that was starting to bother him, far from it. It was just the  
temporal disconnect the sensation produced that was really starting to make him  
wonder just what the hell was going on. He found himself actually wanting to  
feel how much time elapsed between when her lips touched his and when they  
finally broke away. How else was he supposed to....

Enjoy it? he suddenly thought, sparking a considerable shift of his mental  
focus to the realization. Yes, he was enjoying the feeling of being kissed,  
and he honestly couldn't explain why. It certainly was different than all of  
the others, the hesitant but determined kisses Doris had tried to give him so  
long ago, the kisses Leila had given him that were as fiery as they were deep  
in the throes of passion, the sometimes naive kisses of innocent young maidens  
he had rescued, simply wanting to express their gratitude in a time-honored  
traditional fashion....

He blinked hard as his mind was snapped back in to crystal-clear and very  
sharp focus. It took him a moment to process the backlog of sensory input,  
realizing that what had brought him out of his thoughts had been the sensation  
of her teeth very gently nipping his lower lip. Not her sharpened fangs, of  
course, but delivered in such a way as to be distinctly attention-getting.

"D?" she said in a faintly amused tone once she was sure his dark eyes had  
fully refocused. "You really need to do something about those dark thoughts of  
yours. I've never seen anyone so constantly driven to distraction as you seem  
to be. Not a good trait in a hunter, if you know what I mean," she observed.

"Then stay out of my mind," he said quietly before he even realized the  
retort had formed on his tongue. He mentally winced a moment later, knowing  
that he had just made two serious mistakes. The first was letting her know  
that his grip on his thoughts was slipping, leaving him dangerously vulnerable  
when distracted. The other mistake, the greater of the two in his opinion, was  
letting her know she was the one shaking the screws loose, at it were.

The comment clearly took her by surprise, leaving her speechless for a few  
moments. "Well," she finally said after a number of slow and steady breaths,  
"I suppose it's only fair given what you're doing to me," she said, her eyes  
drifting down to study one of the small pouches tightly secured to the chest  
pocket on his dark tunic.

"And that is...?" he prompted in a guarded tone.

"What's it to you, hunter?" she countered, her tone soft and gentle with  
an undercurrent of a challenge. Her eyes rose up to meet his, the corner of  
her mouth quirking up into a faint smirk. "Or do you care a little more about  
what others think of you than you would have them believe?"

The urge to sigh in frustration washed over her as she was answered with  
stony silence once again, realizing that he wouldn't be giving her a reply to  
that question any time soon. She knew that his silence this time wasn't due to  
his armor of isolation, but was instead a part of what he had become over the  
centuries. He simply was not talkative by nature and that no amount of gentle  
coaxing could be able to radically alter that. At least, not anytime soon.

"Alright, D," she spoke up after taking a deep breath, looking him square  
in the eyes. She almost choked on a random air molecule as a sudden wave of  
anxiety swept over her, making her wonder just what in the hell was wrong with  
her. "Like I said last night, I'm starting to like you. You're unlike anyone  
I've ever met.... human, dunpeal, vampire, mutant, anything. I'm glad to hear  
I'm driving you to distraction, because that's exactly what you've done to me  
since the moment I saw you step out of the front gates of my father's castle.  
I have no idea what I'm going to do, either with you or with myself, and it's  
making my head spin so much I'm surprised I haven't gotten nauseous enough to  
throw up on your boots. Figuratively," she added with a soft growl as he edged  
away half a step.

"So now what?" D asked calmly, his expression perfectly impassive.

She simply looked at him, not believing that he could be so unaffected by  
her confession of feelings. "D, please tell me everything I just said means  
something to you," she asked in a very soft tone.

He looked at her in silence before very slowly nodding his head, a look  
of dark isolation and pain slowly seeping into his eyes. "It does," he replied  
quietly, almost too softly for her to hear.

"Then tell me," she pleaded, her liquid-like eyes starting to fill with  
tears. "D, please, I need to know if.... if you feel the same as I do, if you  
care about me as I've found myself starting to care about you."

The look of pain on her face was like one of the many daggers that had  
been rammed into his chest at various points in his life. This one seemed to  
bite more deeply than the others, leeching him not of blood or life but of his  
resolve, his strength, his projected armor that had kept him shielded from the  
confusion and soul-searing chaos of human emotions.

"Galen...." he started to say before hesitating. He couldn't lie to her,  
not just because honor forbade it but it simply wasn't in his nature to do so.  
And yet, when the truth would hurt far more than a lie would, when it would be  
almost a mercy to spare her the pain.... even then, he couldn't.

"I don't know," he finally said as calmly as possible. He had tried to  
keep his tone empty of emotion, to project the feeling of impassiveness and  
control, but there was simply too much pain to have kept it concealed. "Not  
that I don't have.... feelings, but that I.... I simply don't know what they  
are. I'm sorry."

"You've loved before," she pointed out in a soft whisper, visibly fighting  
to keep her tears and emotions in check. "I'm not asking you to love me, D, I  
just want to know if.... if you.... if we.... if we can...."

Her blue-green eyes closed as he stepped forward, a single tear sliding  
down her face as his hand came up to very softly brush her cheek. A gentle  
embrace followed, wrapping her up in a comforting hug just as she had done for  
him.... how long ago? Minutes? An hour? She summarily dismissed the thoughts  
of time from her mind as she melted into his arms, feeling a sense of emotional  
peace surround her at the simple warmth of the gesture.

((Guys?)) a very cautious voice spoke up, causing them both to blink at the  
unexpected interruption. ((I really hate to break this up, but we're about to  
get some company. Up the road ahead.))

Both D and Galen immediately turned to look, the soft clomping sound of a  
horse-drawn wagon reaching their ears at it approached. It seemed to be a  
delivery cart of some sort, several large wooden barrels and crates neatly  
stacked and tied down in the back. A very gruff-looking man was holding the  
reins in the driver's seat, turning his head to look as he saw the pair of  
figures holding one another on the trail. A fairly large shotgun was resting  
on the seat next to him in easy reach, the polished double-barreled weapon  
seeming to sparkle as it was struck by tiny rays of light breaking through the  
forest canopy.

D looked down to find Galen giving him a slightly uncertain look, clearly  
not sure what to do now. She kept her arms around him as the cart approached,  
however, laying her head on his shoulder as it finally reached them.

The cart didn't even slow down as it passed by them, the driver casually  
nodding his head to them in idle recognition as he rode by. D kept his gaze on  
the driver the entire time, making sure that they wouldn't be attacked as more  
than one shotgun-bearing wagoneer had done when they encountered a dunpeal on  
the road. The driver apparently had no interest in doing so, however, and it  
was only a matter of seconds before the wagon sounds faded from their ears.

"I take it that means we're getting close to the human town," she said in  
a quiet voice, her head still resting on his shoulder. "You sure you don't  
mind if we spend the night there? I really don't think they'll bother us."

"And if they do?" he asked quietly, fairly sure he knew what the answer  
would be but feeling the need to hear her say it anyway.

"Then I guess we leave as quickly as we can," she replied, squeezing him  
tightly. "I'm not about to start a riot just because I want a hot shower."  
She lifted her head from his shoulder and added, "You need one too."

He glanced down at her, trying to determine her mood. She seemed to be  
serious and somber for the most part, but there was just the faintest flicker  
of something else in her eyes. Amusement, perhaps, teasing him just a little.  
And after putting up with that thing in his hand for so long, he knew he could  
deal with being teased.

"Let's go," he said simply. He paused when he started to turn away from  
her, feeling the grip on his hand suddenly triple in intensity.

"D...." she said hesitantly, looking up at him with openly uncertain eyes.  
"Do you.... do you want to try to make this work?"

He paused in slight confusion, wondering what exactly she was trying to  
ask of him. "Make what work?" he inquired carefully.

Her lower lip trembled slightly as she hesitated for a moment. "Us," she  
finally said, barely able to whisper the word.

The stabbing sensation was back in his chest again, seeming to burrow even  
deeper than the first time. Again it took him a few moments to gather enough  
courage to speak the painful truth, and again it almost burned his soul like a  
brand to have to say it. "I don't know," he whispered back.

He almost blinked as she laughed very softly to herself, a smile briefly  
crossing her face as she looked up at him. "I suppose I should have expected  
that," she murmured softly, more to herself than to him. "Damn you, hunter,  
what the hell am I supposed to do with you?"

((I've been asking that question for centuries,)) the thing muttered.

Galen's hand shot out just as D's did, her hand grasping his left wrist in  
an iron grip before he could slam his palm against the tree trunk. She gave  
him a warning look before turning his hand around, looking down at the suddenly  
uneasy face in the center of his palm.

"Do me a favor, little one," she said slowly.

((Ma'am?)) it asked in an extremely wary tone.

"I remember what you said earlier. 'You're a cute dunpeal and all, but I  
don't want to get involved in whatever it is the two of you seem intent on  
getting yourselves into,'" she mimicked gently. "Please have the good grace to  
keep your word and stay out of our business, or at least keep your commentary  
to yourself. It is.... not appreciated."

((Yes, ma'am, I'll keep quiet,)) it promised in a subdued tone.

"Thank you," she replied with a slight nod of her head as she let D's hand  
go. She cast another warning look at him before turning around, heading over  
to where the mount had wandered off to. She hoisted herself into the saddle  
without effort and picked up the reins, pausing to give D a slightly impatient  
gesture. "Whenever you're ready," she called out to him.

((D?)) it spoke up very quietly to him, drawing a dark look. ((Do you have  
any idea how much trouble we're probably going to be in soon?))

"No," he replied succinctly as he headed over to the mount.

((That makes two of us,)) it sighed softly, moments before it was mashed  
flat against the saddlehorn.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another two hours of silent riding brought them to the fork in the road,  
Galen pausing just long enough to glance over her shoulder at D before steering  
the mount along the southern trail. It took another half-hour before the first  
signs of human habitation could be seen, small farming houses and open fields  
dotting the landscape at random intervals.

The majority of the trees sharply thinned out as they approached the town,  
the forest here reduced to simple fields in order to provide raw materials for  
building construction. They didn't see any evidence of advanced construction  
such as metal structures or electrical distribution lines until they reached  
the hub of the town itself, a rather loose collection of small buildings that  
boasted both commercial and residential uses. Only a handful of people could  
be seen moving about, but almost all of them stopped to very closely watch the  
pair of dunpeals as the came to a halt next to a tavern-like inn.

They left the mount tied to one of the posts next to a water trough and  
stepped inside, carefully assessing the environment as they went past the pair  
of saloon-like swinging doors. It was fairly dark inside, with only a handful  
of shielded lamps hanging from the ceiling and a slew of typically rowdy neon  
signs to provide any illumination.

Whatever activity had been going on at the time had come to a perfectly  
silent halt, a game of cards suspended in mid-motion as a good two dozen pairs  
of eyes all turned to focus on the two figures standing just inside the open  
doorway. Most were dressed in the rugged, dusty overalls of ranchers, complete  
with wide-brimmed hats and fairly large belts. More than one weapon could be  
seen in a holster hanging from the leather-and-metal belts, and more than one  
hand was discreetly freed up to move fast if need be.

"Howdy, strangers," a man sitting by himself at a table said with a very  
heavy drawl. Most of his face was hidden in darkness despite the lightbulb  
hanging almost directly over him, his light gray hat casting a wide shadow  
around his head.

"Evening," Galen replied calmly, making sure both her hands were in front  
of her where everyone could see them. The edge of her cape seemed to slip back  
a few inches as if stirred by a breeze, letting the hilt of her rapier reflect  
some of the dim light in the room. "We're just passing through and wondering  
if we could get a room for the night."

The man said nothing for a moment as he sipped on a rather huge tankard of  
bright yellow beer. "Well, miss, you'll have to talk to Rosie over there," he  
said with a casual gesture of his free hand across the room. "She's the keeper  
of the keys, as it were. I must say, though, it's rather.... unusual to see  
one of your kind in these here parts, let alone two of you together," he added  
in a calm manner before taking another sip of his beer.

Galen cast a quick glance at D before shrugging in dismissal. "Like I  
said, we're just passing through, nothing more." She looked up and frowned as  
she heard a snort of contempt from another patron a few tables down.

"Yeah, that's what the last dunpeal said before we had to run his ass out  
of town," a dark-haired man growled quietly. "Buncha blood-sucking...."

"Zeke?" the first man said in a weary tone. "Now I know your momma done  
taught you better manners than that. Just sit down and drink your beer, we'll  
handle this one. You'll have to excuse him, miss," he added to Galen. "We've  
had a few bad experiences with your kind a few years back, and some of us are  
still a touch bitter about it."

Galen nodded quietly, the edges of her lip curling down in mild disgust.  
"I can understand that one," she allowed, absently reaching back to brush her  
fingertips along D's wrist.

"Rosie, you've got a room or two still open, right?" the man called out  
towards the back of the tavern.

"Well, I...." a woman who appeared to be in her fifties started to say.

"Now hold on," Zeke said with a scowl. "Red, you can't be serious about  
letting them stay here! You know what happened the last time!"

A quiet sigh rose up from the first man's chest as he took a very deep  
drink from his tankard before setting it down with a heavy thump. "Zeke, you  
really need to learn a few manners. Not all the dunpeals in this world are  
hell-bent on death and destruction. How about giving 'em a chance to at least  
introduce themselves before flyin' off the handle, eh? My name's Red," he said  
to the dunpeals, reaching up to tip his hat just slightly. "If you don't mind  
my saying so, miss, you've got some right pretty looks on you. Don't suppose  
you'd mind telling me your name?"

"Galen," she replied with a slight bow of her head at the compliment.

"Huh," Red said as he scratched his chin. "Now I know I done heard that  
name tossed around before. Daughter of some nearby vampire lord, right?"

"That's her, alright," a woman's voice spoke up from somewhere in the dim  
depths of the tavern. "I ain't never heard of nobody else having hair like  
that, she has to be Count Niles' daughter."

Red nodded to himself before picking up his beer again. "That's right,"  
he muttered before taking another deep sip. "Now I don't know much about the  
man, but I can't say I've heard anything about him attacking humans or being a  
pain in the neck as it were. Whoops, sorry," he added as he realized what he  
had just said. "Figure of speech, miss, didn't mean to offend nobody."

"No offense taken," Galen replied with amusement. "And my father isn't  
the kind of noble to bother anyone who isn't bothering him. Not all of us are  
mindless blood-sucking leeches," she added lightly, casting a look at Zeke.

Red laughed softly to himself before taking another sip of beer. "That's  
right comforting to hear, Miss Galen. So what about you, stranger?" he said to  
D. "Don't suppose you'd care to introduce yourself as well?"

D cast a glance at Galen as she took his hand in hers and squeezed gently.  
"D," he said simply to the room in general.

"WHAT?" Zeke blurted out loudly, standing up so quickly that his chair  
tumbled onto the floor. "The D, the legendary vampire hunter?!"

"Now hold your horses, Zeke," Red said patiently, seemingly unfazed by the  
announcement. "That's a fairly famous name and all, and one you're not likely  
to see around these here parts. Granted he's a dunpeal, but everyone knows D  
is a dunpeal. No disrespect, stranger, but you'll have to prove that one to me  
just so we know for sure you are who you claim you are," he said very calmly  
before taking a sip of beer.

"Red, are you crazy?" another voice called out from somewhere in the back  
of the tavern.

"Nope," Red replied as he set his tankard of beer down. "Just cautious,  
that's all. Now I know how his identity can be proven, too. You folks may  
want to have a seat," he added, making a gesture to an empty table across from  
him. "This one should take a fair bit to explain, so bear with me. Rosie, you  
want to be kind enough to get them something to drink? Put it on my tab."

"Thank you," Galen said, still holding D's hand as she made her way over  
to the indicated table. She looked up as Rosie carefully approached, holding  
a small serving tray as if it were a wooden shield of sort. "Do you have any  
wines, by chance?" she inquired carefully as she held out a coin.

"I.... think so," Rosie replied hesitantly, looking at the offered coin  
before nervously accepting it. "A-And you?" she asked, casting a glance at D.

"The same," he said quietly, the brim of his hat keeping virtually his  
entire face hidden in shadow. The scabbard of his sword rasped quietly as it  
was removed and leaned against the table, allowing him to sit down in the old  
wooden chair.

Red waited until the bar-mistress headed back towards the kitchen before  
starting to speak again. "It must've been a good, oh, thirty years ago when I  
was still living in Riverwake out west," he mused, his voice staying calm and  
quiet but still loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. "Small town like  
this, mostly ranchers herding cattle for a living. One day this dunpeal fellow  
comes through town, middle of the day in full sunshine. Talkative gent, but we  
could tell he was a little touched in the head by the way he spoke. Not really  
a simpleton, but he wasn't exactly a right thinker, either.

"So anyway, the day goes by and this gent moves on about his business. As  
soon as the sun goes over the horizon, however, all flaming hell breaks loose.  
Zombies start swarming the place, must've been a good seven or eight dozen of  
the bastards. The screams started about six seconds after the first one was  
spotted and they didn't stop.

"My boys and I were out in one of the cattle pens when we heard the first  
screams, so we start riding like the devil himself was on our tail to see what  
was going on. Almost made it to the town when we met up with the zombies, and  
damned if things didn't get ugly right quick."

Red paused to take a deep sip of his beer, the rest of the tavern seeming  
to remain perfectly still and listening to his story in absolute silence. "We  
had our guns with us, of course, but the ammo didn't last too long and really  
didn't slow the bastards down too much. Miss, I'm sorry if my rough manner of  
speaking offends you," he suddenly said to Galen.

"It's quite alright," she replied softly. "Please, go on."

"Thank you kindly, miss," Red said as he paused to take another sip of his  
beer. He was about to speak but held his tongue as Rosie returned with two  
large mugs of dark purple wine.

"Here you go, miss," Rosie said in a slightly uneasy tone as she set the  
pair of mugs down in front of D and Galen. "We don't have much in the way of  
wine as few of these rustlers drink it, but we still have a cask we bought a  
few years back."

"Thank you," Galen replied with a gentle smile as she picked up her mug.  
She sipped at it carefully, blinking hard at the smoothness of the taste. "Not  
to complain in the least, but this tastes like it's been around for far longer  
than a few years. You should try some yourself one of these days," she added.

"I'll.... I'll think about it," Rosie stammered.

"So anyway," Red drawled quietly once Rosie had returned to the other side  
of the tavern, "We're busy blundering around like newly-castrated cattle trying  
to figure out how in tarnation we're going to deal with these zombies, when all  
of a sudden this dark figure on a dark horse just blows past us like he was the  
wind himself. Didn't hear him coming, didn't see him coming, nothing, just  
bam, he's there.

"Now I'll be honest, I didn't see the man's face, moved too quickly for  
that, but I caught a glimpse of his skin and could tell he wasn't just some  
pale ol' white boy from the back forty. The rest of my boys picked up on this  
too, and we're all thinking he's just a second dunpeal come to join the first  
to finish us off."

The room remained deathly silent as he paused to take a sip of beer before  
continuing. "That thought got changed right quick soon as this fellow meets up  
with the zombies. His horse didn't even slow down as he whipped out one of the  
biggest swords I ever seen in all my life and just starts whaling away at them  
zombies like he was the hand of God himself.

"Now I was a younger man back then, but I hadn't just fallen off the hay  
wagon the week before. I done seen my share of one-sided fights before, but I  
ain't never seen one man kick so much ass all by hisself in so short a time  
like that. There must've been a good twenty zombies or so, minus the two we  
managed to plug before we ran out of ammo, and I swear that he done cut 'em all  
down in about thirty seconds. Wham, bam, thank'ee zombie, just like that.

"Now the rest of us are just standing there ready to piss ourselves, not  
believing what we're seein' maybe twenty feet in front of us. And before the  
last chunk of zombie parts can hit the dirt, he's off galloping towards the  
town again like a bolt of black lightning. So we stop to make sure that the  
zombies ain't gonna sit back up again before we start scramblin' after him."

Another sip of beer provided an agonizing pause of anticipation before he  
began to speak again. "Well, there are several paths into town, and he must've  
taken one of the low roads because we didn't see him until we reached a small  
hill overlooking the center of the town. So we're looking into the town and  
all we can see is a herd of zombies being mowed down by this stranger. He had  
gotten off his horse for some reason and was still wingin' that sword around,  
dropping zombies like they was just ugly clumps of wheat during harvest time.

"Then all of a sudden we hear a scream. Real high-pitched, coming from a  
little girl over by the barn. Cute little thing, couldn't have been more than  
five or six years old. Anyway, she was backed up against the barn with this  
zombie looming over her, like he was going to eat her or something. Now the  
stranger was on the opposite side of the road with a good four or five zombies  
in his way, and we all knew that even if he ain't had nothing but open road in  
front of him to run, there was no way that he'd be able to get over there to  
save that little girl from that zombie."

Red paused to take an unusually deep swig from his tankard before setting  
it down on the table. "And then the damnedest thing I ever seen in my life  
happened. This stranger looks up to see where the scream is coming from, and  
all of a sudden he starts moving faster than I can follow. I mean blurred like  
a ghost, he moved that quickly. That sword sounded like a thunderclap as it  
cut through both the air and the two zombies in front of him. Then he reached  
down to his belt, drew a knife, flipped it to catch it by the point, and then  
chunked that thing across the entire distance between him and that little girl.  
Must've been a good sixty yards, but damned if it didn't make the distance.

"Damn thing looked like a saw-blade as it spun through the air, and it  
nailed that zombie right in the back of the neck. Just whip-whip-whip-thunk,  
the entire thing buried up to the hilt. The tip blew clean through its throat  
and stuck in the barn, and that was it for the zombie. Bastard was just nailed  
to the side of the barn like the ugliest scarecrow you ever seen. That little  
girl damn near broke our eardrums with a scream of fright, but she was able to  
run away and over to the arms of her mother. They both hauled out of there,  
safe and sound, and that stranger just went back to kicking zombie ass and  
taking names like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll."

"Ho-ly shit, Red," someone whispered from the darkened tavern as the  
rancher stopped for another sip of beer. "Are you serious?"

"Quiet, Jeb, I ain't finished yet," Red said calmly. "So anyway, this  
dunpeal finishes with the zombies, saddles back up, and goes tearing off after  
the first dunpeal who was seen on the other side of town. Then things get real  
quiet for about ten minutes before one of the townsfolk comes back with that  
mentally-challenged dunpeal's head on a stick. Boy told everyone as loud as he  
could that the two dunpeals got into it real ugly-like before the stranger just  
lopped his head off. Then he just wiped the dirt off hisself and started to  
head out of town like it was nothing. The boy managed to get a name from him  
before he left, and he said his name was D.

"'So that's D,' we all said soon as we got everything back in order. I  
still never got to see his face, however, so I didn't think I'd be able to say  
for sure if I ever ran across him again. So anyway, we're still cleaning up  
when I remember the scarecrow-zombie he left us with, so I walk over to it,  
plunk it with my .45 a few times to make damn sure it's dead, and yanked the  
dagger out of its neck."

Red paused for a sip of beer before continuing. "I remember thinking to  
myself that it was a right nice piece of work, light, well-crafted, and just  
begging to be thrown. I flipped it over and saw.... well, let's just call it  
a design for the moment. Anyway, I was thinking that surely he'd come back to  
get it once he remembered where it went, so I just rinsed it off, wiped it down  
with a touch of metal polish, and kept it nice and safe for him.

"Thing is, he never came back for it," Red said with a casual shrug. "So  
after a month or so, I finally said hell with it and decided to keep it myself.  
Damned useful knife it was, saved my ass from a werewolf once seeing how it had  
some silver edging on it, but anyway. Here's what I'm thinking, stranger....  
surely that man who called himself D knew what was on that knife of his, so if  
you could tell me what that.... design was, that'd be all the proof I need to  
know that you're the same man I saw in action way back then."

"Well damn, Red," Zeke muttered into his beer. "Why didn't you just ask  
that question at the start and spared us that whole story?"

"Well, stranger?" Red prodded D quietly. "What was on it?"

D took a slow sip of his wine before speaking. "Flowers," he said calmly.

"Flowers?" Galen echoed, giving him a startled look. "What kind?"

"A lily and a pansy," D replied before taking another sip of wine.

The entire room turned to look at Zeke as he bust out laughing, almost  
spilling his beer across the table. "F-F-Flowers?" he laughed, clutching the  
table for support. "You tryin' to tell me that this supposedly bad-ass hunter  
of vampires puts flowers on his weapons? A lily and a pansy? BWAHAHAHA!"

The rest of the room looked over at Red as he leaned back, swinging his  
leg up to thump the heel of his boot on the table. He reached down and pulled  
a large knife out from inside the boot, flipping the weapon in the air to catch  
it by the point. His arm suddenly flicked out in a surprisingly fast throwing  
motion, sending the knife spinning along a dangerously low arc.

The blade embedded itself right on the edge of the table, barely more than  
an inch away from the still-laughing Zeke. The laughter abruptly changed to a  
very startled yelp of surprise as he stumbled back, the mug of beer landing in  
his lap with a heavy splashing sound. "God DAMN, Red!!" he gasped as he shot  
to his feet, dripping beer. "What in tarnation do you think you're doing?!"

"Zeke?" Red said in a very tired tone. "Shut your yap before I shut it  
for you, a'right? Now pull that thing out and show it to Rosie. I don't know  
nothin' about flowers 'cept that they smell nice, and I'm fairly sure an inbred  
hick like you don't know a pansy from a weed. Rosie, think you can help us out  
with this one?"

Zeke stared at the old rancher before yanking the knife out of the table  
with a snarl, casting a dark look at both Red and D before glancing down. His  
eyes doubled size a moment later as his head snapped back up, giving Red an  
incredulous look. "What the hell, Red?" he gasped.

"Rosie?" Red asked quietly as the bar-mistress leaned over Zeke's shoulder  
to look at the delicate designs etched on the blade.

"Well, I'll be damned if that ain't a lily," she breathed. "And you just  
have to go look at my garden to see what a pansy looks like, and that right  
there is one of the most beautiful pictures I ever seen of one."

"Good enough for me," Red said calmly as he leaned back. "So I guess you  
are that D fellow after all. Welcome, pardner," he added with a gentle hoist  
of his tankard in casual salute.

Galen just stared at D in silence for a moment before rising to her feet.  
She quietly walked across the room to where Zeke and Rosie were, ignoring the  
latter as she edged back and gently plucking the blade out of the grasp of the  
former. She looked down at the blade, tilting it slightly to get a better view  
of the pair of flowers with intertwined stems. "D?" she called out, lifting  
her head up to give him a slightly stunned look.

"A gift," D said quietly, taking another sip from his mug.

Galen's eyebrows arched up in surprise as she studied the knife in silence  
for another few seconds. She made a soft noise of curiosity to herself as she  
hefted the blade, testing it for balance and aerodynamics. Satisfied that it  
was of a very high quality, she flipped it around to hold it by the bladed end.

Few people actually saw her move, her wrist snapping out in a very tight  
arc to send the blade singing through the air. A collective gasp of surprise  
and awe rose up from the rest of the tavern as D reached up to pluck it out of  
the air as it neared him, the hilt slapping his palm solidly enough to sound  
like a wooden board being broken.

"Jesus...." someone muttered as D calmly finished his mug of wine before  
standing up. He walked around to the front of the table and pulled one of his  
daggers from his belt. The weapon was then gently laid down on the edge of  
Red's table as D put the decorated knife back in the now-empty sheath.

"Naw, you don't have to do that, pardner," Red drawled quietly.

"Thank you," D said quietly to Red before he started to turn away.

"I don't think so, hunter," Red suddenly said in a low tone as he started  
to rise to his feet.

The entire tavern suddenly held its collective breath as D slowly turned  
back around, his eyes narrowing slightly at the other man's tone. It had been  
some time since someone had used it with him, and in every case it had been the  
precursor to a fight of some sort.

Red slowly reached up to remove his hat with his left hand, revealing the  
face of an old rancher who had seen things he would rather not have. A pair of  
ice-blue eyes looked back at D, the man's jaw covered with the coarse salt-and-  
pepper bristles of one who hadn't bothered to shave in a few days. His right  
hand slowly came up, outstretched to offer D a simple handshake.

"I thank you, D," he said very slowly, "For saving my daughter's life  
back there with that knife throw."

D looked up at him before nodding slightly, reaching out with his own hand  
to accept the handshake. It was a simple gesture, one that he hadn't been in  
a position to do very often, but it was probably one of the very few uniquely  
human gestures he didn't have many problems being a part of. Under the right  
conditions.

"Damn, Red," someone whispered quietly, the soft feminine voice audibly  
laced with emotion. The emotion was also visible in Red's eyes, the old man  
seeming to be close to the point of tears himself as he shook D's hand.

D looked up as they stepped back from one another, finding Galen quietly  
approaching him with a similar look in her eyes. She gave Red a gentle smile  
before she stepped closer to D, sliding her arms around his waist and leaning  
forward to give him a very solid kiss that raised more than a few eyebrows from  
the rest of the tavern patrons.

The kiss took him completely by surprise. It wasn't the soft brushing of  
her lips against his as the previous ones had been, but a full and bold kiss on  
the mouth that left them both silently panting for breath. Her lips parted as  
she edged back a few seconds later, just enough to let the very edges of her  
teeth lightly nip his lower lip before pulling away from him.

He simply had no idea what to say or how to react as she let go and moved  
past him, returning to her seat at the table. Stunned, he turned to look at  
Red, noticing that a very faint blush of embarrassment had taken up residence  
on his sun-weathered face.

"I've been waiting to thank you for thirty years," he said with a slight  
cough as he put his hat back on. "But I'll be damned if I'm going to thank you  
like that as well," he drawled with a twinkle in his eye.

A series of quiet chuckles and laughs swept the room as D gave the old man  
a faint smirk of amusement, nodding his head slightly before returning to take  
his seat as well. He paused as he sat down, casting a sidelong look at Galen  
as he felt her hand lightly rest on his thigh.

"Rosie?" Red drawled as he tossed back the remainder of his tankard in a  
single gulp. "About that room they were askin' for...."

"Easy, Red," Rosie replied with a gentle scoff, looking over at D. "After  
hearing a story like that, I don't think anyone would have a problem with them  
spending the night here. I'll fetch the room keys after dinner. Assuming the  
two of you are staying for dinner...?" she asked, giving Galen and D a slightly  
uncertain look.

"Just as long as trail rations aren't on the menu," Galen replied dryly as  
she drained her mug.

"Oh, heavens no," the bar-mistress replied with an insulted look. "I may  
not be the best cook in these here parts, but I certainly can cook a lot better  
than that! Trail rations.... I never!" she stated indignantly.

"Easy, Rosie," Red chuckled quietly. "Those rations are good for filling  
you up on those long wagon rides, but they do sort of wear out the taste buds  
after a few days. I'm sure whatever you make will be right delicious. What's  
going to be on the grill tonight?"

"Well, I was fixin' to try my hand at some ribs," Rosie hedged, suddenly  
not so sure of her abilities anymore. "Been awhile since I done that, but we  
just got a crate of 'em from Westerfield yesterday. Decent price, too."

Galen chuckled quietly to herself, idly rubbing D's leg beneath the table.  
"Ribs sound good to us, ma'am," she said with a soft smile. "Don't suppose I  
could trouble you for some more of that wine?"

"Sure thing, miss," the bar-mistress replied as she started to turn away.  
She paused and glanced over at D, still appearing to be slightly nervous with  
his dark presence in her tavern. "I take it you need a refill as well?" she  
asked in a slightly hesitant tone. She paused as she only got a silent nod in  
response before she turned to Red, casting a slightly disgruntled look down at  
his empty tankard. "And I take it you want me to fill that glass buffalo of  
yours as well?" she said primly.

Red chuckled quietly as he held out the empty tankard to her. "You know  
I always pay my bar tab, Rosie," he drawled.

Galen looked over at D as the tavern seemed to slowly return to normal,  
the long-interrupted card game once again progressing. She leaned over to him,  
to speak quietly without being overheard. "Flowers, D?" she asked lightly, a  
look of amusement dancing in her liquid-like eyes.

"I was once hired to rescue a girl who had been kidnapped by a small clan  
of vampires, apparently for ransom," D said in a hollow tone, his face hidden  
in darkness by his hat. "At least, that's what the note they left said. They  
really wanted me and just used her as bait. They sought to play mind games as  
I followed their trail in the hopes it would make me easier to kill. I came  
across that knife left out in the open, etched with the supposedly cowardly  
images of a lily and a pansy as a sort of insult. I would have left it where  
it was had the blade not been wetted with blood. Her blood," he added softly.

"D...." Galen said gently, squeezing his leg. They both looked up as  
Rosie returned, quietly placing another pair of wine-filled mugs in front of  
them before collecting the used ones and departing. Galen's eyebrows arched up  
as D picked up the mug and seemed to down a good fourth of the contents in a  
single swallow, feeling tiny threads of ice slowly wind around her spine. "So  
what happened?" she asked softly, praying it wouldn't play out as she started  
to fear it had.

"I found the girl's body nailed to the castle doors," D said softly, his  
muted tone faintly laced with anger, bitterness, and sorrow at the memories.  
"She didn't have a pulse when I reached her, but her blood was still hot. She  
had been hanging there for hours, but she couldn't have been dead for longer  
than five minutes. I kept the knife with me, not because of its craftsmanship  
but because it was a reminder that even after all that I had done over the  
centuries, I still needed to make sure that every moment counts. When I was  
able to use it to save a life when a single second had mattered.... I felt it  
was best to leave it behind and let the girl's memory finally rest in peace."

He remained silent as she scooted closer to him, leaning over to take his  
hand in hers and resting her head on his shoulder. The gesture was not truly  
unexpected at this point, having already gotten used to her tendency to try to  
comfort him like that. The realization that he was both getting used to her  
and that he was indeed starting to find the gestures to be of some degree of  
comfort was enough to make him put his mug back down with a muted thump, not  
wanting his sense of unease to be revealed by a hand-tremor or worse.

"You know," Red drawled slowly, tipping his hat back just enough to study  
the pair of dunpeals, "I've heard many thing said about you, pardner, some I  
can easily believe, others I'd have to see proof of m'self first. But in all  
the stories and legends and the like, not one of them ever said anything about  
you having a traveling companion. Certainly nothing about a woman as uniquely  
beautiful or as memorable as Miss Galen there," he added respectfully.

Galen lifted her head up to cast an amused glance at D, giggling softly to  
herself at the dour look on his face. She edged forward to plant a soft kiss  
along his jaw before turning around to look back at Red. "Let's just say that  
I'm a recent development," she said with a hint of coyness. She missed the  
look that crossed D's face, his free hand reaching for the mug of wine as he  
cast a slightly unamused glare at the back of her head.

"Oh?" Red mused as he leaned back, idly sipping on his refilled tankard of  
light yellow beer.

"We had a bit of a rough encounter at first, but once we.... ran through  
our differences," she said playfully, casting a sultry look back at D, "We were  
able to sort things out between us well enough."

It was one of those rare moments where it took D every single ounce of his  
self-control to avoid publicly embarrassing himself by reacting to the way she  
had so cavalierly summarized their initial encounter on the bridge. Even so,  
he was unable to fully suppress a faint cough from wafting up from his lungs.  
He set his mug back down on the table and swallowed the wine as discreetly as  
he could to avoid a choking hazard.

Red chuckled quietly to himself, having caught the momentary change in D's  
expression and knowing that something was definitely going on between the pair  
of dunpeals. "Now that sounds like an interesting story, miss," he said in a  
somewhat lazily tone. "I take it the two of you have been traveling together  
for some time now?"

Galen shrugged off-handedly as she reached for her mug of wine with her  
free hand, her other still holding D's hand in a gentle grip. "Not really. He  
had some business with my father, and I guess we sort of made a connection on  
the way out." She took a deep sip of the wine before adding in a dangerously  
calm tone, "I guess you can say we're now on our way to go see my mother."

She looked up at D just in time to see his expression change, unable to  
prevent herself from smiling at the look of sheer surprise and even a hint of  
horror with the implications at the way she had said it. A quick glance around  
the tavern revealed more than a few raised eyebrows and looks of intrigue at  
the thought, especially from the small group of women clustered together in the  
far corner.

"Sounds serious," Red observed carefully with a sip of his beer.

Galen turned to look at D, not bothering to hide the gentle look in her  
eyes. She squeezed his hand gently before leaning over, letting her lips brush  
against his for several seconds. A very faint sighing-hum rose up from her  
chest as he didn't resist the public display of affection. "We're starting to  
think it is," she murmured to the rancher as she laid her head back on D's  
armored shoulder, a soft smile of satisfaction crossing her face.

The old rancher nodded sagely to himself, idly taking another sip of beer.  
"That's probably one of the best things than can happen to a man like him," he  
said quietly. "If you don't mind my saying so, pardner, I can see for myself  
that you're not the most talkative gent in the world. More often than not it  
means you got something right heavy on your mind. Sometimes you can tell your  
boys about it while you're chasing the herd all over God's creation, to get it  
off your chest and all. But there are some things that you really just can't  
talk about with your boys, and so the only cure for that one is the presence of  
a special woman at your side."

He paused to take a sip of beer before continuing, "Now I imagine that a  
famous vampire-hunter such as yourself has seen a lot of stuff us common folk  
couldn't even dream about in our worst nightmares. If I had that weighing on  
my mind, I'd probably be sitting on my tongue as well just so I don't let slip  
something that might scare the color off anyone's drawers just thinkin' about  
it. Now I don't mean to be racist or nothing, miss, but seeing how you're one  
of kind as well I'd be thinking that you'd be better-equipped to cope with some  
of those notions given your nature than us human folk might be."

"That's a fair way of looking at it," Galen replied quietly, squeezing D's  
hand yet again. She almost blinked when she felt him return the gesture, her  
eyes closing briefly as she savored the feeling of comfort that came from so  
simple a thing as a momentary increase in pressure.

"You'd be surprised what humans can cope with," D spoke up very quietly.

"Oh?" Red said, looking up from the rim of his tankard with a slightly  
startled look. "And what do you mean by that, pardner?"

D seemed to stare down at his mug for a few moments before replying. "The  
strength of the human spirit is often stronger than people realize," he said.  
"That's part of what vampires found so interesting, and also why they continued  
to underestimate the power humans have when confronting them."

Red and Galen exchanged slightly uncertain glances, neither one sure where  
this one was going or even where it had come from. "I reckon you might have a  
point with that," Red said carefully.

"D, what's wrong?" Galen suddenly spoke up, suddenly sensing a dramatic  
shift in his mood.

"The human spirit is what keeps you going through the darkest of times,"  
D said in an emotionless tone. "Once the final hours have passed, the horrors  
will eventually fade in intensity as you adjust to and cope with the memories.  
You may even forget them entirely if enough time passes, allowing you to live  
your lives with only a few scars."

Red snorted quietly and took a deep sip of beer. "I don't know about that  
last one, pardner, but I'm following along with what you're saying. I think,"  
he added in an openly guarded tone. "I reckon there's just a little more to  
what you're saying than that, however."

Galen studied D's face as he remained silent, seeming to absently sip his  
mug of wine with uncaring indifference. "I think his point is that my being a  
dunpeal probably doesn't make that much of a difference," she said to Red, her  
eyes never leaving the slightly weary lines of D's face. "At least in terms of  
being able to cope with all that he's gone through," she added, giving the old  
rancher a gentle look.

"I see your point, miss," Red replied, easing back against the wall in a  
relaxed position. He seemed to pause for a moment before the brim of his hat  
tilted up, allowing some of the light to be cast on his unshaven face as he  
sniffed the air. "Well, damned if that don't smell like some good ribs," he  
drawled with a faint smile.

Galen tested the air as well, making a soft purr of intrigue as the aroma  
of barbecued ribs registered on her senses. "Mmm, I do believe you're right,"  
she said in a slightly husky tone. "I'm a little more partial to rabbit stew  
than beef, to be honest, but think I can tell when something is going to be  
delicious when I smell it."

"Rabbits?" Red echoed with a dry chuckle. "Miss, you got to be kidding  
me. Not to poke fun at your idea of vittles, but how can you compare the taste  
of an itty-bitty ball of fast-hoppin' fur diced up in a kettle to the taste of  
some plump an' juicy corn-fed, hand-raised good ol' fashioned beef all laid out  
on a grill and roasted over a hickory fire to mouth-waterin' perfection?"

Galen chuckled quietly to herself as she laid her head back down on D's  
shoulder, giving the rancher an amused look. "Half the fun is catching them in  
the first place," she pointed out. "The taste of triumph in a difficult hunt  
tends to sweeten things. And if they give you a real hard time in the process,  
the taste of vengeance can be just as honeyed as any glaze," she added with a  
slightly predatory smile.

"Jesus," Red laughed, almost spewing a mouthful of beer across the table.  
"Now that's one vivid image you just painted there for me, miss. Now I ain't  
never been much of a hunter and all, but I've taken a few pot-shots over the  
years at migrating ducks and geese. Only had a duck on the dinner plate but  
once or twice, but I do know what you mean about the taste of satisfaction."

D said nothing as he listened to the conversations around him, trying to  
figure out what was bothering him so much. It was clear from the way Galen and  
Red were talking that the rancher didn't mind their presence in the slightest,  
a slightly unusual attitude for a human to have after being attacked by another  
dunpeal in the past. Granted it was thirty years ago, not counting the other  
incidents he quietly alluded to earlier, but still....

A casual survey of the room produced a wide range of reactions. He could  
tell from the way that Zeke kept glancing at him that the younger man didn't  
trust him, which was both understood and expected. A good number of the other  
patrons glanced over at him every so often as well, but he couldn't tell if it  
was out of distrust or simple curiosity at the 'legend' sitting at one of the  
tables.

The small group of women clustered together around a large table in the  
corner worried him the most, able to discern more than one furtive glance in  
his direction that had little to do with distrust. It was a phenomenon he only  
recently became aware of, a growing number of women becoming more than a little  
interested in the man behind the stories they heard. Not the stories that he  
could hear being told in bars and taverns among the general population, but the  
far more quieter whispers only rarely heard outside the very complex and almost  
frighteningly huge social circles that women formed.

It would have been a lie to say it wasn't his fault, as he had willingly  
joined a very small number of equally willing women for a (usually) quiet night  
of (mostly) gentle passion and lust. He did, however, quietly blame Leila's  
sense of humor for leading him to make his other promise to her on that very  
windy and sand-stormy night so long ago. She had wanted others to also be able  
to boast about having had a night with him, a concept that he still had yet  
to truly figure out why even to this day. He might have refused the promise to  
her had he any idea that such dalliances, rare as they were, would fuel such a  
wide-spread phenomenon.

Of course, had he known just how many women would try to approach him for  
a quiet night after hearing about the whispered stories, he probably would have  
ran screaming out the door, sandstorm be damned, for the sanctity of a plague-  
filled rat-infested crypt buried in a swamp before making that promise to her.  
That wasn't to say he didn't mind the occasional dalliance.... well, as least  
only recently, as it had taken him quite some time to get used to them after  
Leila had opened his eyes in more ways than one.... but he still didn't like  
having to leave them in the morning after sharing so much with him. And that  
didn't take into account all the less-than-comely women who approached him.  
Granted he truly didn't care much about physical appearances, but in some cases  
he just couldn't help the faint nausea at the thought of seeing some of them  
naked with a look of lust for him in their eyes....

He blinked as he felt a pair of fingertips touch his chin, very gently  
turning his head around to wind up looking at a pair of openly curious liquid  
eyes. "You're thinking again," Galen said very softly, her gaze sliding down  
slightly to study his lips. She waited to see if he would say anything before  
glancing back up to gaze into his eyes. "Something on your mind?"

"Always," he replied softly, his tone quite unreadable.

"Of course," she purred very quietly, playfully batting her eyelashes at  
him. The corners of her mouth edged up in a satisfied smirk at the brief but  
still discernable reaction of surprise and unease that crossed his face, the  
wicked part of her delighting in being able to throw him off-balance so easily.  
"It wouldn't have anything to do with that gaggle of geese in the corner making  
eyes at you, now would it?" she said in a soft, almost sultry tone as she made  
a slight gesture with her head.

He honestly wasn't sure which alarm went off first, the one warning him  
that she was a woman in a playful mood, the one that sensed a hint of jealousy  
in her tone, or the display of uncanny insight that most women tended to have  
that openly bordered on the supernatural and he had yet to figure out how it  
functioned as it did.

"And if it did?" he replied calmly, figuring that pushing the jealously  
button was probably the easiest of the three to understand and cope with. He  
had come to understand just how volatile a jealous woman could be, but he was  
quite used to physical danger. The sheer unpredictability of a playful woman,  
however.... that he doubted he could ever get used to.

The remote looks of amusement and intrigue were clearly visible in her  
blue-green eyes as a delicate eyebrow was arched up in response to his words.  
"Really now," she purred in a soft tone. "And do any of them catch your eye?"

He paused for a moment as something seemed to tickle the back of his mind.  
It wasn't another warning alarm going off, although there were plenty of them  
doing so at this very second. He quickly realized that it had been the psionic  
voice of the thing in his hand, perhaps doing the equivalent of a silent sigh.  
The vocal part didn't register on his ears, of course, as it had been entirely  
too soft and lost amid the muted background noise, but the mental part of its  
voice was still able to reach him.

Was it trying to warn him? he quickly wondered. Or was there something  
else it wanted? Granted it had been trying awfully hard lately to try to keep  
him together with Galen, possibly even as a couple. That much was glaringly  
obvious, even to one as obtuse as he knew he tended to be in social situations,  
but what would that truly accomplish?

He refocused and looked into her eyes, a very soft-spoken part of his mind  
urging him to do something. It was a part he rarely heard from and listened to  
even less, but there was something about this particular situation that made  
him stop and actually listen to it for once. She was being playful, trying to  
tease a reaction of some sort from him. So why not turn the tables on her, if  
only for a moment? Would it hurt if he played along just this once? Surely he  
could be coy after so many centuries of dealing with countless coy women....

"Maybe," he finally said quietly. He waited for the span of a heartbeat  
before adding, "But not like you do."

He realized a moment later that perhaps he had miscalculated something,  
deciding that he couldn't have drawn a stronger reaction from her if he had  
stuck a cherry stem in her ear and set it on fire. Her eyes promptly doubled  
in diameter, her irises widening so rapidly that it literally created a ripple  
of liquid motion in their depths. Her soft and pale blue lips parted of their  
own accord, the gentle outrush of air suddenly freezing in mid-motion in a soft  
gasp. The grip of her hand on his suddenly tightened, not painfully so but  
enough to threaten to cut off all circulation in that area.

"D...." she breathed very softly as her expression changed, her tear-ducts  
starting to open up just enough to increase the level of moisture in her eyes.  
The look in her eyes changed yet again, a fairly wicked gleam of playfulness  
replacing the stunned looks of shock, surprise, and something else that had  
been too fleeting to truly identify.

"Well now," she said in a husky whisper as she leaned over towards him,  
just enough so that her lips brushed his as she spoke. "I guess we'll just  
have to give the geese something to gaggle about for awhile to keep them busy,  
now won't we?"

Her lips seemed to burn with electric fire as they melded to his, giving  
him a decidedly deep kiss that quite literally took his breath away. He was a  
fraction of a second away from tearing himself free from her so he could try to  
breathe before he suddenly remembered he had a nose that could conduct air just  
as well as his mouth could. The cool sensation of life-giving air filling his  
lungs seemed to settle his nerves down a notch, just enough to let the rest of  
his brain cope with the feeling of being turned inside-out by the raw emotional  
intensity of her kiss.

A distant part of his mind started to nag him quietly, telling him that he  
was making a scene and that the tavern was becoming dangerously quiet again as  
they noticed. The voice was a drop in the bucket compared to the whirlwind of  
emotions and feelings whipping around inside his skull, however. He figured  
the only reason Galen wasn't in his lap was because of the design of the wooden  
chairs, making it somewhat problematic to rest anything other than a napkin on  
your upper thighs in comfort. That did little to interfere with the range of  
motion of her upper body, however, which was demonstrated by the way her arms  
wrapped around him in a very tight embrace.

He was unable to resist responding to the fierce pressure of her lips, his  
own parting just slightly as hers started to work around in a gentle motion.  
His hand seemed to move of their own accord, coming up to lightly squeeze and  
knead the muscles of her upper back. He had no idea how long the kiss lasted  
before a loud cough seemed to echo across the deathly silent tavern.

"I don't mean to be rude, kids," Red drawled in a very polite tone, his  
face all but buried in his tankard of beer, "But you might want to save some of  
that appetite for dinner. Rosie's passing out the plates now...."

The kiss was broken so quickly it almost rattled their teeth, Galen's head  
pulling back from his just as a truly intense bloom of crimson embarrassment  
swept across her face. D's face quickly became its usual impassive mien, but  
not before a dark blush of his own could be seen making a brief appearance.

"Sorry," Galen managed to murmur without tripping over her tongue, giving  
D a look filled with more emotions than could be counted. She quickly removed  
her hands from around his waist, one hand sliding down to hold his in a very  
firm grip. She scooted her chair over as close to his as she could, leaning  
against him his arm as best she could.

"Don't need to apologize to me, miss," Red replied with a rueful chuckle  
and a very long drink from the tankard. "I know how it is when you young'uns  
fall in love and all. Shoot, with all the nonsense that's been happening as of  
late with the bandits and other unsavory nocturnal types, it's a bit heartening  
to see you two go at it like that. After all, how often do you hear of that  
happening?"

"Red, you sick buzzard," a voice called out, "I keep telling you that if  
you get a woman of your own, you won't get all hot and bothered if you happen  
to see someone else getting a lil' kiss or two. Might even improve your mood  
on occasion."

"Cork it, Jeb," Red growled quietly.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," Galen said to Red in a slightly  
hesitant tone, briefly exchanging glances with D.

Red paused and gave her a slightly abashed look. "I was just sayin' about  
the snuggling and all, miss," he replied. "That's not something we hear about  
happening among your kind, that's all."

"Really," Galen said dryly, giving him a half-amused look. "And how do  
you think we came to be if it wasn't for.... snuggling?"

Red promptly blushed hard as he looked down at his tankard of beer. "Not  
what I meant, miss," he managed to say in a level tone, clearly embarrassed at  
where the conversation had ended up. "I just meant that I can't remember ever  
hearing any stories from anyone about meeting a vampire or a dunpeal who was as  
friendly as you are or who seemed to be.... well, forgive my saying so, miss,  
but who seemed to be human enough to do such things in public like hold hands  
or give your man a right solid kiss like that as you seem to be. I had always  
thought that y'all simply don't do that."

It took her a few moments to figure out how to reply to that, exchanging  
openly surprised looks with D. "Why, thank you, Red," she said with genuine  
warmth as she looked over at the old rancher. "I.... don't remember anyone  
ever saying anything like that to me before."

"Shoot," Red grumbled quietly as he busied himself with a deep drink from  
his tankard. "If it weren't for the points on your ears, miss, you could pass  
for a human with the way you've been carrying on like that."

D looked over at Galen as she turned around, her eyes starting to fill  
with tears and completely at a loss for words. He knew his own expression was  
as impassive as ever on the outside, but what he was feeling inside was a whole  
different issue. If one who was only one-quarter human had enough humanity and  
human-like traits to impress a full-blooded human.... what was a half-human  
dunpeal like himself truly capable of? It had taken him virtually his entire  
adult life to learn how to love and be loved, but she was probably a tenth of  
his age and had already learned so much.... not just learned, but mastered  
to the point of readily gaining human warmth, trust, and approval....

He blinked and refocused as he felt her fingertips brushing across his  
lips, finding her staring up at him with a very soft and tender look on her  
face. She was so young, and yet knew so much about being human. Perhaps....  
perhaps she could teach him? If she could learn, why couldn't he? Surely she  
wouldn't refuse him if he asked properly....

"D?" she said in a very soft tone. "You're ticking me off now."

That drew a very hard blink from him, the soft declaration of her current  
mood completely taking him by surprise. "What?" he said, allowing his tone to  
reflect his stunned state.

"You're thinking again," she replied, the corners of her mouth twisting up  
into a gentle smile as she tapped a fingertip against his lips. "You really  
need to quit doing that every so often, you know. It's not good for you. Why  
don't you just quit thinking and follow your heart for awhile? You know," she  
said, lazily tracing random patterns with her fingertip. "Just try to relax a  
bit. Look around you, D, nobody's interested in hurting us or anything. If  
you start to open up a little, you might even make a few life-long friends, or  
at least find someone to share a few stories with over a few beers. Or are you  
afraid that people might start thinking of you as.... being human?" she added  
in a very soft and light whisper.

D knew a challenge when he heard one. He usually ignored the ones that he  
knew would have little impact on whatever it was he was doing at the time and  
responded to the rest as appropriate. The part of his mind that weighed such  
things decided for some reason that this was one challenge that really might  
not be in his best interests for him to simply let pass unanswered.

"Alright," he said simply, clearing his mind of all active thoughts and  
deciding to permit the first impulse that would normally be rejected by his  
conscience when it crossed his mind. There was a delay of precisely six one-  
hundredths of a second between when the first impulse popped into his mind and  
when it was validated as an acceptable action under the present circumstances,  
making it seem like there was no hesitation at all.

He could almost feel her eyelids closing in surprise as he leaned over,  
pressing his lips to hers in what he felt was a moderate kiss. Not too light  
to be ignored, not too deep to be invasive, and with just enough passion and  
warmth to make it something worth remembering for longer than a few seconds.

The only reaction he could discern was in her hands, one squeezing his  
hand gently and the other coming up to lightly hold his cheek. There was no  
resistance whatsoever to him, her soft lips seeming to be nothing more than a  
most pliant and warm putty. It surprised him to realize that he could feel her  
pulse beneath her lips, seeming to race along at a fairly rapid pace.

The sound of a pair of plates being laid on the table caused him to break  
the kiss and look up, finding Rosie standing there with a small serving tray  
and a look of almost motherly disapproval on her face. Her eyes seemed to  
sparkle with amusement, however, as she finished laying out the steak knives  
and silverware in front of them.

"I said I'll fetch the room key after dinner," she said, giving Galen a  
knowing look that tripled the intensity of the blush on her cheeks. "You two  
just enjoy your ribs and behave yourselves, alright? I know you ain't going to  
cause no problems to nobody, but I still don't need no ruckus of any kind here  
in my tavern. That goes for you as well," she added, giving Red a stern look.  
"Don't need you giving these kids any ideas or nothing."

"Shoot, woman," Red chuckled into his beer. "They look like they need any  
ideas from an old coot like me?"

Galen just looked over at D as a series of quiet snicker and chuckles went  
around the room, the vibrant blush on her cheeks seeming to get even worse.  
"I'm sorry," she whispered to him as she gave his hand one final squeeze before  
twisting back around to sit at the table properly.

"For what?" he asked, giving her a slightly curious look.

She giggled quietly before making a gesture to the rest of the tavern.  
"I think I just ruined your dark and mysterious reputation," she said as she  
grabbed a napkin and fluffed it out over her lap.

He cast a brief glance towards the back wall where the group of women were  
seated, seeming to be whispering among themselves at a furious pace despite the  
fact they were all busy eating. A second sweep of his eyes revealed that the  
rest of the patrons were likewise occupied with their meals, all busy devouring  
the fresh-off-the-grill barbecued ribs and paying scant attention to the pair  
of dunpeals. Perhaps there was still a lingering sense of wariness in the air,  
but for the most part the impression he got was one of.... casual acceptance.

"Good," he said calmly as he reached for his own half-rack of ribs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dinner was delicious by anyone's standards, more so when compared to the  
trail rations he was used to. The ribs had been just a little over-cooked, or  
at least it was to his sense of taste, but the tartness of the barbecue sauce  
more than made up for it. Of course, the sauce had provided its own host of  
problems, namely the unholy mess it made, but that's what the stack of napkins  
was for.

Both D and Galen sat back in their chairs, Galen to relax as she nibbled  
on one of the last ribs and D to conceal the fact that he was letting the thing  
in his hand eat some of the bones. It had taken Galen a few minutes to notice,  
giving him a slightly startled look of curiosity before dismissing it and going  
back to her task.

"Rosie?" Red drawled as the bar-mistress returned to collect most of the  
dirty dishes. "I think you need to quit frettin' about your cooking skills.  
Those were some of the best ribs I've had in awhile."

Rosie shot him a faintly unamused look. "I know I can cook, Red," she  
countered tartly. "All you cattle-rustlers wouldn't be hanging around here  
begging for scraps if I couldn't."

A quiet laugh rose up from somewhere in the back of the tavern. "Now if  
you could just brew a better-tastin' beer instead of having to have those kegs  
of chilled horse-piss hauled out from the tradin' post up the trail, you just  
might have something here," a voice called out.

"Jebadiah, you ingrate backwoods hick, get out of my tavern!" Rosie yelled  
over her shoulder, causing the rest of the patrons to burst into laughter. "I  
don't seen you goin' to all the trouble of brewin' your own, and you sure drink  
a lot of my beer for not likin' the taste."

Galen gave D an amused look as she scooted back from the table and stood  
up, idly gathering the dishes together in a neat pile. "I'll be back," she  
said quietly as she carried the dishes over to Rosie.

"Huh?" Rosie said as she turned around to find Galen approaching her.  
"Oh, you didn't have to do that, miss," she said rapidly as she set her tray  
down to rebalance the load and make room for more dishes.

"It's quite alright," Galen assured her as she handed the dishes over.  
"I just need directions to the washroom, if you don't mind."

Rosie nodded in understanding. "Straight back through the kitchen door  
and off to your left," she replied as she hefted the tray and went back to  
collecting more dishes.

It seemed that the majority of the room's attention shifted as a single  
unit, first to follow Galen's exotic beauty into the kitchen, then turning to  
unobtrusively assess D as he silently sipped on his third mug of wine.

"You know, pardner," Red said gently as he sipped on a fresh tankard of  
beer, "I hope you don't mind my saying so, but Miss Galen seems to be a right  
fine young woman."

"I know," D replied quietly, his tone seeming to be one of resignation.

"The two of you are going to be alright together, I trust?" the rancher  
inquired in a very careful and slightly guarded tone. He sighed quietly as he  
got a slightly confused look from D and took another sip of beer. "I'm just an  
old man and don't mean to be pryin' into nobody's business, pardner, but I'm  
seeing the two of you together and I'm wondering why I ain't never heard of  
something like that being seen before, you know? Now I don't know anything  
about the young lady, but you.... you're just a little warmer than what I've  
heard about you. Not that anything bad is said about you, just that you were  
a little.... distant, I guess. Almost like you didn't care about nothin'."

There was a long stretch of silence as Red sat back to study the dunpeal,  
idly sipping his beer as he watched him work on the mug of wine. "Now I know  
that ain't true," he finally said quietly, keeping his voice low so only D and  
perhaps a few nearby patrons could hear. "I've seen you react when innocents  
are in danger, and I done heard far too many other stories about the same to  
believe otherwise. I also heard about some of the critters you've gone up  
against, and I don't mean some casual nasties like them zombies. You got some  
heavy guts there, pardner, taking 'em on like that, and I reckon it wasn't a  
pretty sight in the end."

Red sighed quietly and paused to take another sip of beer before pressing  
on. "But I'll tell you what, pardner, I also done seen what those kinds of  
horrors can do to a man. Just eats you alive from the inside on out, leavin'  
nothing but an empty shell behind. Now I don't know what you've seen or what  
it's all done to you, but you might want to take it easy. Don't none of us  
need to be hearing about the same sort of thing happening to you, not after all  
that you've done for us human folk."

"Your kindness and concern is appreciated," D said calmly.

"I'm sure it is, pardner," Red replied. "Still, I think you should just  
try to relax a touch. Miss Galen there has a lot heart for a dunpeal, if you  
don't mind my saying so, and damned if I ever met one like either of you. She  
seems to be happy havin' your arm to lean on and all," he pointed out. "Now I  
know what it's like to have a loved one to be with, and I know what it's like  
to try to live without one. The difference 'tween them is like comparing a  
field of wheat to a herd of tumbleweeds. Same plant, stalks and all, but only  
one of 'em is truly alive and healthy. And they need a little attention every  
so often to stay healthy, if you know what I mean."

"I do," D said after a few moment's of contemplative silence.

Red just chuckled and tipped his hat back a few inches. "I guess what I'm  
trying to say to you, pardner, is be careful with what you've got. Might end  
up like me one day, waking up with the crack of dawn to find that the special  
woman in your life won't be waking up ever again," he said, pausing to take the  
deepest swallow of beer anyone had ever seen him take. "If she treasures you,  
pardner, you best be treasuring her just as much lest she slip away from your  
grasp while your head is turned. She might not pass away from a fever as my  
wife did several winters ago, but a loss is a loss regardless."

"I understand," D said quietly, staring in to his mug before looking up  
over at the old rancher. "And I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for having  
the strength and courage to share that with me."

"That's right kind of you to say so, pardner," Red replied quietly, making  
a slight tipping motion with his hat. "My daughter moved down south a ways a  
number of years ago to get married, sends me letters every so often. Last one  
I got was a couple of months ago, letting me know that she'll be making me a  
grandpa before the spring thaw is finished. It's the kind of thought to put  
hair on your chest, if you know what I mean," he chuckled ruefully. "Still,  
her letters keep me going some days, and I've got Rosie and the boys here for  
those days when I need something more than a beer for company. You get used to  
it in some ways, and others you don't."

"Ever thought of remarrying?" Galen inquired softly as she approached in  
perfect silence. Neither D nor Red has seen her return, the end result being  
a very hard cough from the rancher that almost coated the table with beer.

"Tarnation, miss!" Red gasped once he was sure his lungs were beer-free.  
"You about made me embarrass myself, sneaking up on an old man like that."

"I'm sorry," Galen apologized with a smile as she sat down next to D, one  
hand reaching out to take hold of his.

Red said nothing for several seconds as he sipped his beer. "I suppose  
some folk would want to get married again," he finally said in a quiet voice.  
"Maybe if I were twenty years younger, I'd think about it. But I was married  
to my wife for damn near forty years when she passed away, and no woman in the  
world could possibly even come close to replacing what she meant to me. Oh, I  
suppose I could find some widow my age to like, spend the rest of my days in  
her company, but all we'd be doing would be growing old together. You only  
live once, and I already done lived out most of my life with Grace. You just  
can't replace something like that, not just the memory of living together but  
the memory of life itself. It wouldn't be right if I were to try to forget all  
that we had, to replace that little empty spot in my life with someone else."

"I think I understand," Galen said softly. "And I'm sorry if...."

"Miss," Red interrupted quietly with an absent gesture of his tankard.  
"Don't ever be sorry for asking questions you don't know the answer to. I'm  
not foolish enough to just look at your pretty face and reckon that you're my  
daughter's age, I know dunpeals like yourself don't age with the seasons like  
the rest of us human folk do. I suppose if I could live as long as you do, I  
would eventually find another woman to be with, to fill the void in my life,  
but I'm old, miss. Old and tired. Not that I've got one foot in the grave,  
mind you, I can still round up the herd with the best of 'em, but I'm tired  
enough to just want to sit back and count the days until I can be with her once  
again on the other side. Had the tables been turned I don't doubt she'd be  
doing the same for me, so I'm not going to disappoint or dishonor her memory or  
her love just for a few years of good times that an old man like me probably  
wouldn't be able to enjoy like a younger man would.

"But you?" he said, setting his beer down to face her squarely. "I'll be  
honest, I have no idea how old you are, and I'm not rude enough to be asking a  
lady for her age, but I reckon you're plenty young enough to have several human  
lifetimes ahead of you. If you and your man over there are serious about one  
another, you shouldn't hesitate to make the best of it. Might only be for a  
short while, might be for longer than my grandkid's life, but at least you have  
that kind of time to enjoy life together. I had almost forty years with my  
wife, and I thank the good lord for every second of it. And if the two of you  
can find as much happiness and love with one another.... well, I wish you two  
the best. Not much more than a man can say about that," he added with a shrug  
and another deep sip of beer.

"Thank you, Red," Galen said very quietly, squeezing D's hand gently. She  
looked over her shoulder at him, her blue-green eyes starting to fill with the  
beginnings of tears again. She blinked as a shiver ran through her, causing  
every single muscle in her body to twitch ever-so-slightly in unison. "Sorry,"  
she muttered as a faint blush crossed her cheeks.

"It's okay," D said quietly, having likewise felt the gentle tingle in his  
soul caused by the setting sun. He lifted his head as Rosie approached their  
table, a knowing look of what might have been called motherly understanding on  
her face as she set a simple metal key in front of him. She then briefly wiped  
off the table with a damp cloth before moving over to another table, leaving  
their half-empty mugs of wine on the table.

D and Galen exchanged glances before she blushed again, the pale crimson  
tint of her cheeks providing a rather fetching contrast to the blue-green hues  
of her hair and eyes. "You want to get my stuff out of the saddle-bag for me  
while I go find out which room is ours?" she asked in an unusually quiet tone.  
"I'll leave the door open so you know which one it is."

He nodded as he stood up, reaching out to grab the sword leaning against  
the edge of the table. He paused as she tugged gently on his wrist, turning  
him around to give him a soft but decidedly warm kiss. "Thanks," she whispered  
as she grabbed the key with her free hand and headed towards the staircase at  
the far end of the tavern.

"Night, miss," Red drawled quietly as she passed him, looking down at his  
beer with a small knowing smile.

Galen paused to give him a slightly embarrassed look, the dark blush still  
in full force on her cheeks. "Good night, Red. Thanks for the company. It's  
not often that.... well, that I'm so openly welcomed in a place like this."

"Due respect, miss, it's not often we get paid a visit by a dunpeal like  
you," Red countered gently. "Truth be told, I don't think we've ever had such  
a visit, period. We're pretty fair-minded folk if you stop and try to get to  
know us, and so we tend to treat strangers in the same way they treat us. You  
and your hunter friend are the only dunpeals I ever heard of making an effort  
to be friendly and all, so it's only fair that we return the favor. Manners,  
you know," he added.

"Thank you," Galen said quietly, glancing over at D before turning around  
and resuming her walk towards the stairs.

D watched her go for a moment before casting a glance at Red, absently  
slipping the scabbard's strap over his chest to secure it against his back. He  
was almost at the door when Red spoke up again, causing him to pause for a few  
moments to listen.

"Word of advice, pardner," the old rancher said quietly. "Now I know you  
ain't going to find no horse-thieves in these here parts, but we still get a  
visit every now and then from a few nocturnal critters who have a taste for  
horse-flesh. You might want to take your mount over to the stables at the end  
of the town, just a short walk from here. Bart's a good man and he'll watch  
over him for you. If he gives you any problems, just tell him you know me, and  
if that don't do the trick, just come back here and I'll go have a word with  
him m'self. He's a bit like Zeke, you know, but he's got better manners."

"Thank you," D said quietly as he pushed his way through the saloon-like  
doors and into the cooling twilight air. He untied his horse and led him by  
the reins up the street, able to see the wide structure of the stables a good  
five hundred yards away.

((You know, D,)) the thing in his hand spoke up quietly, ((I have to admit I  
never really thought about it myself. Honestly, how many times have you heard  
of a dunpeal walking into a town for a casual meal? And I mean a true meal,  
not just window-shopping for his or her next victim. Or a pair of dunpeals  
traveling together? Sure, you hear about the vampires going for an evening  
carriage ride with their brides, or their living sex toys depending on how you  
want to look at it, but....))

"Enough," D said quietly.

((You're not listening, damn it,)) it protested with surprising harshness,  
causing him to stop and glance down at his hand. ((Has this ever truly happened  
before? Not that you or I are aware of, which means it is actually possible  
that you are the first to do such a thing.))

"And?" he prodded quietly after pausing to search his memories for just  
such an occurrence. The only thing he could think of was the time he had been  
asked to meet another dunpeal in a very dark and seedy tavern ages ago. The  
discussion had been distinctly blunt and open, rapidly degenerating to the  
point where it had to be 'taken outside' to be resolved with rather unsavory  
results. At least, unsavory to the other dunpeal....

((And I think that things back there went pretty damn good for happening  
for the first time,)) it pointed out. ((Especially in a town that seems to have  
been victimized in the past by other vampires and dunpeals. They opened up to  
you, D, they gave you the chance to prove yourself. And then they welcomed you  
as one of their own. I think that's pretty significant, don't you?))

D said nothing as he resumed guiding the horse up the road towards the  
stables. He realized that the thing was right, however, that he had just been  
pretty much accepted back there. At least in Red's point of view. Granted he  
had apparently saved the man's daughter back then, which would have put him on  
any man's good side, but the rancher seemed to have made a genuine attempt at  
reaching out to him as a friend.

((And you know what's even more significant?)) it continued carefully. ((It  
wasn't just you that got accepted. She did too, and she didn't have her own  
legend to rely on. She didn't bother to hide herself from them, did she? No,  
she just showed them who she really was and they liked what they saw. And you  
can do the same, D, I know you can. You two are really are a pair, even if you  
don't want to hear it,)) it added before falling silent.

D managed to keep his thoughts fairly empty until he reached the stables.  
Bart turned out to be a fairly gruff man in his forties, his mannerisms giving  
D the impression that he got along better with animals than most people. That  
suited D just fine, needing only a very short and curt conversation with him to  
have his horse guided into an empty stall for the night. He was almost back to  
the stable doors before he remembered the change of clothes, quickly heading  
back to extract them from the saddle-bags. His abrupt about-face seemed to  
amuse the stablemaster, prompting a knowing smirk and an absent shake of his  
head as he returned to his work.

D glanced down at the bundle he was carrying as he made his way back to  
the combination tavern and inn, idly curious as to what she had picked up. A  
cursory check revealed that it was little more than a clean blouse, some fresh  
underwear, and a very small container of basic feminine toiletries. That last  
drew a very quietly grunt of remote amusement from him, idly wondering why  
women as a universal whole insisted on such things, or at least the items he  
deemed non-essential. He readily understood the purpose of some of them, and  
could even appreciate their usage despite being a male, but the 'need' of the  
rest continued to elude him even after all this time.

Very little had changed when he returned to the tavern, his quiet entrance  
briefly drawing a number of curious eyes before they returned to whatever it  
was they had been doing. Red wasn't around but both his hat and his tankard of  
beer were still lying on the table, suggesting that he had simply stepped out  
for a moment. He could feel a number of discreet gazes following him as he  
headed towards the stairs, the majority of them coming from the distant corner  
of the room where the 'gaggle of geese' were still clustered together in quiet  
conversation.

The stairs creaked quietly as he used them, not nearly as loudly as the  
staircase in the Hive tavern had been, but still loud enough to be heard by a  
majority of patrons still idly nibbling on the remains of their dinner. The  
stairs terminated in a fairly darkened hallway that ran in both directions. He  
could see Galen leaning against the wall at the very end of the left-hand wing,  
causing him to hesitate slightly before heading over to her.

His sense of unease deepened as he drew closer to her, able to make out  
the unsettled look on her face. She looked up as he approached, her cheeks  
once again taking on a faint crimson tint for some reason. She still held the  
key in her hand and the door next to her was slightly ajar.

"Thanks," she said quietly as D handed her the package she had picked up  
back at the Cha'laka Hive. "Umm, D, we.... umm.... might need to think about  
this one for a moment," she said in a hesitant tone, the blush on her cheeks  
darkening slightly.

"Why?" he asked carefully, not entirely sure if he wanted to ask what was  
wrong or not. He paused as she simply opened the door and edged back, giving  
him a clear view of the inside of the room.

The room was roughly the same size as the tavern room they had gotten back  
at the Hive. The walls were painted a soft pastel red color and the ceiling  
was fairly high, probably too high for Galen to reach unaided and without any  
sort of surface she could readily attach to. That meant she would likely have  
to use the bed to sleep on, which was fairly large and over in the corner....

....Decorated in whites and reds with cutesy heart prints all over. The  
pillows were likewise adorned with them, and a quick glance around showed that  
everything else that could be decorated with them in fact was. He couldn't see  
inside bathroom from his angle, but he had little doubt that the towels and  
other sundry items inside were fabricated to match the rest of the decor.

He cast a sidelong glance at Galen, knowing a honeymoon suite when he came  
across one and wondering what exactly was going through her mind at the moment.  
"I see," he said very quietly, suddenly feeling an urgent need to go use the  
toilet as his kidneys finished processing the wine.

"I think I gave everyone the wrong impression earlier," she muttered, the  
cherry red glow on her cheeks tripling in intensity again. "I never cared for  
cutesy girl stuff when I was growing up, so this really isn't my idea of....  
well, you know," she added, seeming to blush even harder as she looked away  
from him. "I don't want to embarrass you or anything, so I can go ask Rosie  
for another room if you don't think this will be appropriate...."

She glanced back at him, blinking hard as she realized he wasn't there  
anymore. Confused, she peered into the suite, blinking again as she saw him  
half-way across the room and unstrapping the massive sword scabbard from his  
back. "D?" she called out hesitantly.

He turned to look at her over his shoulder, his face perfectly impassive  
as he gazed at her. "I thought you said you wanted to give them something to  
talk about," he said calmly. He paused and watched with amazement as her face  
and skin suddenly became as red as an overripe tomato, making him wonder just  
how concentrated her blood was becoming from blushing so hard.

She leaned against the doorway as she began to feel light-headed, acutely  
aware of the sudden change in her blood pressure. "That's.... not what I had  
in mind," she muttered, mostly to herself. She looked up at him for a moment  
before ruefully chuckling quietly, carefully slipping inside the room to very  
quietly close the door behind her. "You really don't mind?" she asked.

"The room decorations do not concern me," D replied calmly as he laid his  
sword against the wall. His cape was removed and neatly folded into a dark  
square that was draped over the hilt, followed by his wide-brimmed hat. He  
then turned around and headed towards the bathroom, intent on doing something  
about that weighty feeling taking up residence in his bladder.

The bathroom was unusually spacious in his view as he stepped inside and  
closed the door behind him. The toilet and sink were of the usual sizes, but  
the shower stall appeared to be large enough to accommodate a small horse. The  
reason why it was so spacious suddenly came to him as he finished his business  
and flushed the toilet. The thought was enough to make him pause for a moment  
as he washed his hands, shaking his head to clear the mental images once he was  
finished. He quietly exited the bathroom, figuring that it had been either a  
playful woman behind the architectural drawing board or somebody with entirely  
too much free time and wishful imagination on their hands.

He found Galen waiting patiently just outside the door, her cheeks still  
tinged pink with lingering embarrassment. He started to move past her to let  
her use the facilities, pausing as he felt her gentle touch on his wrist. He  
looked back at her to find a slightly curious look in her liquid-like eyes, her  
lips moving up to brush against his in a feather-light kiss before poking her  
head into the bathroom to look around. He could feel a sudden change in her  
mood as she froze, very slowly leaning back out before looking up at him.

An icy chill promptly formed in his blood as he saw the emotions changing  
in her eyes. Surprise at first, then curiosity, then a mixture of studious  
assessment, careful playfulness, and sultry intrigue. She reached up to pat  
the front of his tunic, creating a very slight puff of dirt and dust that made  
her wrinkle her nose. "You're dirty, you know," she said softly.

"I know," he replied in a perfectly neutral tone, suddenly feeling like he  
was looking down the business end of a fully-charged hyper-velocity railgun.

"You think that shower is going to be too big for you?" she inquired, her  
fingertips lightly toying with the topmost button on his shirt. She glanced up  
into his eyes and smiled gently, able to see the look of unease on his face.

"Why?" he finally asked after several moments of heavy silence. He knew  
what she was getting at, of course, but he wasn't exactly sure what was going  
through her mind. The kisses she had given him earlier was a definite clue,  
but this was something he really didn't want to misunderstand in the slightest.

The blush started to return to her cheeks as she slowly undid the first  
button on his collar. "Well, I was just.... wondering.... if you.... needed a  
hand with that," she murmured softly. "Like I said, I don't want to embarrass  
you or anything, D, I just.... thought it would be.... nice."

He said nothing for several moments as the second button came undone, her  
fingertips starting to lightly explore the exposed skin beneath the dark fabric  
of his tunic. He found the offer to be dangerously tempting for some reason,  
and not just because she was an extremely beautiful and undeniably attractive  
young woman. He had rarely allowed others to touch him before, and fewer still  
to do so intimately, but there was something about her touch that made him want  
to yield to her, to let her pry him open as one would a clam to get at what was  
safely nestled beneath the armor....

"I've never done that before," he found himself saying very quietly.

She looked up at him with a faint twinkle in her eyes. She nodded as she  
pressed herself against him, her lips softly brushing against his to produce  
that now-familiar electric tingle. "It's okay, D," she breathed softly, her  
lips continuing to brush against his as she spoke. "Neither have I."

Time seemed to turn to slush again as she deepened the kiss, the softness  
of her lips parting just slightly to entice him to do the same. Her hands came  
down to his, intertwining their fingers gently as they leaned against the wall.  
It wasn't a deep or passionate kiss, but rather something that was slow and  
gentle, neither one seeming to be in any rush to 'turn up the heat' or end the  
soul-tingling experience.

She finally edged her head back from him, knowing that he was pretty much  
pressed flat against the wall and had no room of his own to move around. She  
smiled at him softly as she stepped back, keeping their hands together as she  
led him back towards the over-decorated bed.

He almost panicked at first, thinking that he had either grossly misread  
the situation or had completely zoned out and missed some crucial detail. He  
breathed a silent sigh of relief as he realized that she wasn't trying to take  
him to bed, but instead just needed a place for them to sit in order to remove  
their excess traveling gear.

It turned out to be a fairly large pile of equipment. Her belt had only  
been adorned with her rapier sheath and a pair of small pouches, but his belt  
and chest bandolier had had been laden with far much more. He found it to be  
oddly amusing to watch her eyebrows rise up higher and higher with each pouch  
or tool or device that was removed and stacked on the floor. The two knives,  
a pair of pure silver spikes, no less than a dozen small pouches, a compact but  
extremely sturdy set of lockpicks, a magnetic compass, a small package of tiny  
but wickedly-sharp caltrops, and a bundle of what looked like used tea-bags.

"Wolfsbane," D said quietly as she held up one of the pouch-on-a-string  
packages, her eyebrows arched clear up to her hairline.

"Ah," she said simply as she set the tiny pouch back down and nudged it  
away from her. While wolfsbane was primarily used to deter werewolves, more  
than one full-blooded vampire had experienced an unpleasant allergic reaction  
to the delicate herbal plant.

His armor was removed next, followed by his boots. He looked up as she  
laid a hand on his wrist when he went to remove his tunic, giving him a gentle  
look. She merely smiled in response to the questioning look on his face and  
slipped out of her own boots, absently setting them aside as she stood up. She  
then gently took hold of his other wrist and pulled him to his feet, edging him  
away from the bed.

He frowned in slight confusion as she nudged him back a few paces and let  
go, turning around to untuck the heart-dotted blankets and sheets. She drew  
them down to the very foot of the bed and left them at a slight angle, as if to  
make the bed ready for immediate use. That worried him as she turned back to  
face him, reaching out once again to take hold of his wrist. He nonetheless  
allowed her to lead him back towards the bathroom, stopping outside the open  
door as she gently pressed him against the wall.

Her pale blue lips brushed against his as lightly as possible while her  
fingertips took their time in toying with the third button on his tunic, the  
feathery contact seeming to tantalize him with its shallowness and brevity. He  
soon found himself leaning forward, trying to bring his lips into firm contact  
with hers. She actually seemed to resist at first, edging back by fractions of  
an inch to keep the contact super-light before allowing her lips to be very  
gently captured by his. A pair of silent sighs seemed to whisper like ghosts  
out of their noses as she relaxed against him, the third button parting beneath  
her fingertips to expose more of his skin to her.

The kiss was gently broken as she leaned back to gaze into his eyes, her  
eyelids half-closed as she studied him. Her hands came up to slide inside the  
open collar of his shirt, very lightly caressing the pale skin of his neck and  
upper chest. "I could probably kiss you like this for hours," she said in an  
almost inaudible whisper.

The only proper response he could think of was another kiss, leaning his  
head forward enough to capture her soft lips between his own once again. The  
gesture was a bit more passionate that before, drawing a very soft sigh from  
her as she continued to lightly caress his skin. The remaining buttons of his  
tunic parted as if by magic, her hands seeming to need only glide over them to  
entice the desired response.

A quiet sigh rose up from his chest as her hands slowly slid up the length  
of his now-bared chest, seeming to be in no rush to push the fabric off of his  
shoulders. A slightly louder sigh followed the first as her lips slid off to  
one side, following the lines of his jaw and very slowly down to the curves of  
his neck.

His world started to take on a distinctly blue tint a few seconds later at  
the feel of her lips on his throat, lightly teasing the pale skin. The dark  
desire of his vampiric blood quieted down a few seconds later as her lips came  
back up to his, her hands gliding up to his shoulders to gently massage them  
before moving off to the side.

He had allowed himself to be seduced before, first by Doris, then later by  
Leila, and later still by the handful of trysts that had followed as he kept  
his unusual promise to Leila, but none of them had ignited such a deep desire  
to respond as Galen's attentions were doing. What truly amazed him was that it  
wasn't an overly strong or burning compulsion either, leaving him feeling that  
he had all the time in the world in which to proceed at his own pace.

Her black satin cape appeared to be secured only by a simple clasp, the  
metal appearing to be forged from an amalgam of platinum and silver. The irony  
of the discovery made him pause for a moment, realizing that it was virtually  
identical to the composition of the rapier he had bought for her back at the  
Hive. He quickly brushed the thoughts from his mind as he reached out to work  
the clasp, absently wondering if it was tied around her body somewhere else as  
well. The image of her hanging by it back on the bridge popped into his mind's  
eye, realizing that she would surely have been choked if her entire weight had  
been supported by a simple chain around her neck.

((D, watch it!)) the thing suddenly yelled as the clasp separated. He moved  
back by sheer reflex at the warning, blinking hard as the metal links began to  
move and twist back and forth like a pair of miniature metal snakes.

Galen blinked hard at the situation, taking a step back and reaching up to  
touch the clasp with both hands. She glanced up at D and blushed, giving him  
a deeply apologetic look. "Sorry, I completely forgot about that," she said in  
a whisper as she stroked the edges of her cape. The moving links seemed to  
calm down after a moment, gently relaxing to hang free from the mounting points  
on the fabric itself.

"A silken?" D inquired carefully, having heard of the creatures but never  
actually encountering one before. They weren't sentient beings in the sense  
that his parasitic symbiot was, but rather empathic creatures that could react  
to living beings if attached to them.

"A gift from the noble who sought to charm me," she replied quietly as she  
very carefully removed the cape from around her shoulders. It seemed to resist  
for several moments, almost like wet fabric sticking to a body, before it slid  
free. The creature immediately became a mottled gray color as it was neatly  
folded into a bundle and carried across the room, gently set down on top of the  
pile of gear. She lightly stroked it for a few seconds before returning over  
to him, her cheeks still faintly tinged with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," she apologized quietly again, her hands gliding across his  
upper chest once again. "I tend to forget what it truly is. No matter," she  
purred softly, her hands sliding up to caress the back of his neck. "So remind  
me where we were?"

She closed her eyes as she was answered with a soft kiss, her lips parting  
slightly beneath the gentle assault of quiet passion. She leaned back slightly  
as his hands brushed against the collar of her blouse, letting him examine the  
opal-like buttons. She barely felt the first two being undone and failed to  
notice the third, only realizing that one had been touched as well once the  
upper part of her blouse was parted to bare most of her upper chest.

Her breath seemed to snag in her throat as his head dipped down, leaving  
a trail of soft kisses from her jaw down along the full length of her neck and  
around her collarbone. The swells of her breasts were exposed but not entirely  
so, kept in gentle confinement by the tension on the fourth button. Even so,  
the feel of his lips brushing across the supersoft skin sent tingles of both  
fire and ice coursing through her veins, her hands kneading the back of his  
neck in a slow and gentle rhythm.

She almost opened her eyes as she felt his hands working on her blouse  
again, only this time working the buttons from the bottom up. The cool air  
seemed to tickle her stomach lightly as they were all undone save for a single  
button, the one keeping the fabric pulled over the rest of her breasts. She  
could feel his fingertips lightly caressing the muscles of her abdomen even as  
his lips continued a gentle exploration of her exposed curves.

A soft noise rose up from her chest as she pushed his tunic off of his  
shoulders, her fingertips gently guiding it down along his arms until it was  
mostly bundled around his wrists. She then lightly pushed against his bare  
chest, edging him away from her just enough so she could look into his eyes as  
she slipped the material off of his arms.

He looked back at her as he cooperated, absently wondering just what the  
hell he was getting himself into. The whole experience was unlike any other he  
could remember having, part of him thoroughly enjoying her touch as she first  
freed him from his tunic, then caressed all that had just been bared. Another  
part of his mind was warning him that something was missing from the equation,  
but that somehow it was in fact a good thing. He probably would have felt just  
a little bit better if he knew what the missing aspect was, but right now he  
already had more than enough to feel good about....

The button felt slightly cool as he lightly grasped it between his thumb  
and index finger. A very simple and slight gesture of his fingers slipped the  
button through the hole, allowing the blouse to part beneath its own weight.  
She inhaled gently as the loss of tension registered, expanding her chest just  
enough to cause the fabric to slide further and fall away to fully reveal her  
feminine curves to his gaze.

He paused for a moment to study her breasts, entranced by the sheer beauty  
that lay bare before him. She wasn't as voluptuous as some of the women he had  
the privilege of seeing topless but wasn't flat-chested either, seeming to be  
able to fit into his hands with perfection. Her areolae were a very pale shade  
of powder blue and her nipples were an equally soft shade of light lavender.  
They began to harden as he watched, seeming to draw inward and tighten up even  
as her areolae started to crinkle in a most inviting fashion.

He could hear her sudden intake of breath as he leaned forward, gently  
nuzzling the shallow valley of her cleavage. Her fingers started to intertwine  
in his hair as he took his time, kissing her curves softly, inhaling the airy  
scent of her skin, lightly tasting the softness of her quivering flesh. A very  
slow exhalation followed as he began to tease her nipple directly, brushing his  
lips against the hardened nub before giving it a deep and lingering kiss.

"D...." she whispered very softly, almost too softly for either one of  
them to hear. He heard her nonetheless, giving her curves a final soft kiss  
before letting his lips slowly migrate back up to the hollow of her throat. He  
dared not let himself linger too long there, however, able to feel the heavy  
throbbing of her pulse and sense the almost burning heat of her rapidly-flowing  
blood as it called to him.

The temporal disconnect returned as his lips found hers once again, the  
deep yet gentle kiss seeming to go on for an eternity. The feeling was broken  
sometime later as her hands came up to his chest, her fingernails very lightly  
gliding across his skin as they slid down to his waist. Their lips remained  
melded together as they worked, his hands gently sliding the blouse off of her  
even as her hands worked the fastenings of his pants.

He paused slightly as he ran his hands along the full length of her back,  
his fingertips encountering a pair of ridges that he hadn't expected to find.  
The feeling of her teeth only half-gently nipping his lower lip a moment later  
provided a momentary distraction, listening to the faint intake of breath as  
she suddenly breathed in.

"Sorry," she said in a very soft whisper as she edged back slightly, just  
enough for her slightly-wide eyes to look into his. "They're sensitive to the  
touch at the moment."

"How sensitive?" he asked softly, deciding it was best to hold off on the  
more obvious question for the moment. They had felt like dorsal ridges of some  
kind, running parallel to her spine along her lower back. Had he to guess, he  
would have thought they were either an aspect of her Barbarois heritage she had  
yet to mention or perhaps something that the silken creature had implanted to  
attach to or otherwise make use of.

"Just use a light touch," she breathed softly in his ear as she leaned  
into him, her lips brushing his earlobe as she spoke.

It took him a moment to focus enough to respond, distracted by the sudden  
sensation of the front of his pants being opened. Her fingertips wriggled into  
his waistband a moment later, gently loosening the fabric around him. He made  
a soft sighing sound as he kissed the delicate shell of her ear, using as light  
a touch as he could to probe the ridges on her back.

They felt fairly long, seeming to run for at least half the length of her  
back, The surface was rough but not hard, unlikely to be something like bone  
or cartilage. He decided it was best not to probe too long, knowing that he  
would be able to see it for himself shortly. That she had failed to mention it  
to him previously indicated that it was something she didn't feel comfortable  
with or wanted to talk about, a concept that he could all too easily understand  
and accept.

The thoughts of what was on her back became lost as he suddenly felt cool  
air flowing around him, rushing into fill the displacement caused by his pants  
succumbing to the force of gravity. He allowed them to settle down around his  
ankles before leaning hard against her, bring his lips to hers in a deep kiss  
as he shifted his weight to step out of the dark fabric. She seemed to be  
surprised by the depth of the kiss but yielded instantly, molding her body to  
his as he shuffled slightly.

A startling realization lanced through his brain with the force of a bolt  
of lightning a moment later. Here he was, now just wearing a pair of ink-black  
briefs and deeply kissing a half-naked woman that he would soon make a serious  
attempt at transforming into a fully-naked one, his lips pressed to hers and  
savoring the taste of her kiss....

....And the beast in his shorts was still taking a nap.

The shock was enough to almost physically throw him off-balance. What the  
hell was wrong with him? Why wasn't he reacting to her touch, to her kiss, to  
her taste, or to the thought of what lay ahead? Was he broken, or was there a  
far more disturbing problem that he hadn't consciously picked up on yet? He  
did want her.... right?

"D?" she murmured very softly as she sensed a sudden shift in his mood.  
She edged back to look up at him, pausing slightly as she sensed a new kind of  
barrier slipping into place around his personality. "Something wrong?"

He looked at her for a moment before shaking his head, leaning forward to  
brush his lips against hers as softly as he could. "I'm not used to this," he  
said softly. It was a literal truth, of course, as he simply couldn't lie to  
her. Perhaps he would regret his rare attempt at faint misdirection, but for  
the moment he just couldn't bring himself to mention his sudden doubts.

She giggled very softly and kissed him softly, briefly flicking the tip of  
her tongue against his lips. A very soft humming purr rose up from her chest  
as she felt him react slightly, clearly surprised by the new gesture. She slid  
her hands around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder, turning to one  
side to tease the edge of his ear with her lips.

Okay, D thought quietly to himself, suddenly feeling a slight increase in  
the warmth of his blood at her shift in attentions. Perhaps there was far more  
to the situation than he had realized at first. The reaction, subtle as it had  
been, went a long way in reassuring himself that the plumbing still worked just  
fine. Of course, it also meant that the problem was probably psychological in  
nature, which meant that he still had a long way to go before he had his whole  
situation ironed out.

He tried to split his attention as best he could, giving up after just a  
few seconds as he realized that achieving any reliable degree of mental focus  
at the moment just wasn't going to happen. He shoved the thoughts onto the  
proverbial back burner as he caressed her shapely hips, deliberately tickling  
her. He almost smiled as she wriggled against him in a most delightful way,  
her breath audibly tangling up in her throat as she fought to quell her body's  
reflexive actions.

He continued to tease her lightly before moving his hands down further,  
gently working the fastenings to her pants. They seemed to readily part with  
a simple touch, the zipper almost undoing itself as he glided his finger along  
it. His hands followed the movements hers had earlier, gently working their  
way inside the waistband to loosen it up before carefully sliding it down over  
her hips.

The kiss came as a surprise to him, her body pressing hard against his and  
almost mashing him against the wall. Her hips seemed to do a little dance as  
she stepped out of her pants, her lips sealed to his with an almost frightening  
intensity. And yet despite the fierce passion behind the kiss, there was still  
the feeling of something missing, something that he knew should have been there  
but simply wasn't.

They were both quite breathless when she finally relented, easing away  
from him and taking the worst of the pressure off of his ribcage. Not that he  
had minded it in the least, far from it, but being pressed up against the wall  
like that was likewise not something he was used to. In fact, after stopping  
for a brief instant to think about it, he honestly couldn't remember ever being  
subjected to that rather delightful if unusual experience.

He paused to look her over for a moment, noticing that she was now just  
clad in a pair of pale blue panties. She smiled gently at him as she noticed  
his gaze, leaning back provocatively to let him drink in the soft lines of her  
body. The gesture raised her breasts in the air, seeming to offer the pointed  
nipples to him. It was an offer he didn't decline, dipping his head down to  
very softly plant a series of kisses around the throbbing nubs that drew a very  
quiet sigh of pleasure from her.

She finally straightened up and reached down, taking his hand in hers and  
squeezing gently. "Come on," she whispered, moving towards the bathroom with  
him in gentle tow. The tiled floor was dangerously cool beneath their bare  
feet, neither one wasting much time in crossing the bathroom to stand on the  
floormat outside the shower stall doors.

They both paused to cast a measured look at the towel rack before looking  
at one another. The white towels were fairly large and adorned with tiny red  
hearts. One had been emblazoned with 'his' in bright blue lettering while the  
second said 'hers' in a vibrant pink script. Galen giggled quietly and leaned  
forward to kiss him briefly before stepping into the shower stall, casting a  
glance over her shoulder to indicate he should stay put for a moment.

D remained motionless as he watched her play with the shower settings,  
adjusting the dial to a moderately hot temperature before giving it a gentle  
yank. The showerhead immediately began to gurgle as the water flowed through  
the pipes, causing her to quickly dance out of the way before she could be  
soaked with what would likely be cold water. She stepped back out of the stall  
to stand near him, her blue-green eyes seeming to study his physique with open  
interest.

She looked up at him and smiled gently, staring into his eyes for a few  
seconds before she suddenly blinked. She quickly looked around the room, her  
gaze finally coming to rest on the small basket perched on the back of the  
toilet tank. She padded over to examine it, giving him a clear view of the  
dark brown lines marring her lower back. He could only view them for a brief  
moment as she plucked several of the items out of the basket, quickly turning  
around and bringing them back to him.

"These might help," she said playfully as she handed him a small plastic  
bottle of shampoo and a miniature bar of soap.

"Indeed," he said quietly, glancing down at the standard-issue shampoo and  
soap sets one found in virtually every inn across the planet. He stared at  
them before finally looking back up at her, the expression his face causing her  
to blink in surprise. "Galen...." he said in a soft tone.

"You do want some company with this, right?" she replied in a hesitant  
tone, trying to gauge his mood.

"I do," he said honestly, feeling the anxiety easing just a little bit at  
the look of relief on her face. "Can I ask you a favor?"

His eyebrows almost hit the ceiling as she smiled and stepped over to him,  
a soft and almost predatory purr rising up from her chest. "Anything," she  
whispered softly, reaching out to run her fingertips across his pectorals.

It took him a moment to remember what he was going to ask, realizing that  
she had probably meant it when she said anything. "Would you turn around for  
me, please?" he managed to ask in a level tone. "Just for a few moments."

A faint sadness seemed to cross her face for a brief instant before she  
nodded, seeming to understand what he was asking. She reached out to take his  
free hand in hers, holding his palm against the softness of her breast as she  
twisted around to let him get a close-up and unobstructed view of the ridges on  
her bare back.

"Part of your grandmother's heritage?" he said softly as he gave her a  
very gentle squeeze. Her feminine flesh felt extremely soft and supple in his  
hand, able to feel the hardened point of her nipple pressing against his palm.  
It was enough to start to rouse his lust, sending a feeling of blooming warmth  
throughout his veins.

"Yes," she whispered back, tilting her head to one side to rest it on his  
arm. She didn't attempt to explain further, further solidifying his impression  
that she was self-conscious about it.

He very gently pulled her against him, gently tossing the bar of soap and  
bottle of shampoo into the shower stall before bring his other hand up to cup  
her other breast. He started to knead them very gently, dipping his head down  
to kiss the nape of her neck. "You're beautiful, Galen," he murmured softly,  
knowing it was very much the honest truth and hoping it would distract her from  
her current self-conscious mood.

She seemed to melt back against him with a soft sigh, likewise tossing her  
own soap and shampoo into the shower. Her hands then came up to cover his,  
gently massaging his knuckles as they continued to knead her soft flesh. Her  
breathing began to deepen as he continued to kiss the side of her neck, tilting  
her head slightly to give him better access.

Her pulse started to flutter even harder beneath his lips as he slid his  
hands across the full length of her body, gliding down over her abdomen to slip  
his thumbs inside the waistband of her panties. A few gentle tugs was all it  
took to send them sliding down her shapely legs to puddle on the floor, his  
fingertips pausing to linger over most of the bared skin before moving back up  
to cup and cuddle her breasts.

He held perfectly still as she reached behind her, very gently trying to  
return the favor. It was a slightly awkward evolution, but after a few tugs in  
the wrong places she finally managed to work the fabric down far enough to let  
gravity handle the rest. They both remained still for several moments, their  
underwear still loosely around their ankles as the held one another.

A heated cloud of moist air billowed past them, causing them to open their  
eyes and realize just how much steam was in the room. She turned around to  
look up at him, her liquid-like eyes filled with warmth and tenderness as she  
gazed into his dark eyes. They closed a moment later as he leaned forward, his  
lips brushing across hers as he gave her a tight hug.

"You ready?" she whispered softly once the kiss was broken after a minor  
eternity had passed.

"For you or for the shower?" D replied quietly.

"One thing at a time," she murmured back. She kissed him once again as  
she took his hand, carefully stepping out of her panties and drawing him into  
the now dangerously-warm shower stall. She waited for him to step out of his  
own underwear before gently pulling him deeper into the vapor cloud, kicking  
the forgotten bars of soap aside and closing the stall door behind him to trap  
both the billowing steamcloud and themselves in the distinctly hot and soothing  
embrace of a cleansing shower.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shower was virtually over before D finally figured out what he had  
been missing all along. The basic purpose of the shower was definitely taken  
care of, namely purging their bodies of the layer of trail dust that they had  
managed to acquire during the previous three days of travel. Granted it had  
taken at least four times as long as it should have under normal circumstances,  
but neither minded the excessive delays as they took turns gently soaping up  
one another with gentle touches. It seemed that they spent more time kissing  
than actually rubbing or scrubbing, but that was part of the fun.

The kisses has been warm and gentle, seeming to be content to take their  
time and savor each individual brushing of the lips as a new experience. The  
soapy caresses had been slow and gentle, even playful at times as a cleansing  
lather was worked up, massaged around, and thoroughly rinsed off. Shampooing  
one another had been a whole new experience as well, neither having done that  
for anyone before. A few playful questions had led to them trying to compare  
the length of their hair, discovering that D's was longer than Galen's by less  
than a full inch.

But what surprised him the most was the realization of how they kissed and  
caressed. It wasn't the deeply personal or invasive touches of experienced  
lovers, but neither was it the timid explorations of someone new to the art.  
There was genuine warmth and passion in it all, but it finally dawned on him  
that what was missing was the feeling of lust.

That wasn't to say there wasn't an undercurrent of desire, as it was very  
much present. What had been left out were the feelings of haste, of urgency,  
of an overriding need to take one another and do it now. It seemed to him that  
she was in no rush to increase the heat of the fires of passion, content to let  
them burn with gentle warmth at their own pace.

He found it to be a refreshing feeling, as if time itself was actually on  
his side for once in his life. He had very little reason to believe that their  
gentle passion would be ending with the shower, but was instead left feeling  
like it was going to be a very long night and for all the right reasons.

They looked up at one another as the shower was finally shut off, their  
bodies covered from head to toe in countless drops and beads of water. A faint  
smile crossed her face as she kissed him and took a step back, bracing herself  
against the wall and taking a deep breath.

D flinched as she shook her head rapidly, sending a fair amount of water  
flying into the air as her blue-green hair whipped back and forth. He gave her  
a mostly-feigned look of unamusement as he wiped the droplets off of his face,  
reaching over his shoulder to squeeze the majority of the water out of his own  
dark mane of hair.

"You're no fun," she teased quietly as she cuddled up to him again, one  
hand coming up to run her fingers through his damp hair.

"That's not what you said a few minutes ago," he pointed out in a somber  
tone, drawing a quiet giggle and a very light blush from her.

"I'm a woman, I'm allowed to change my mind," she retorted with a playful  
twinkle in her eyes. She giggled again as she got a dour look in response,  
leaning forward to kiss him yet again. She figured that their lips should have  
bruised by now from all the kissing, but she felt only a gentle tingle at the  
contact. She parted her lips a moment later, flicking her tongue against his  
lips to savor the natural sweetness of his kiss once again.

She shivered lightly as the shower door was opened, letting a distinctly  
chilly draft creep in along the ground. She looked up as he reached out to  
grab a towel, chuckling softly to herself as he could only grab the pink 'hers'  
towel without having to take a few more steps. "Wait," she said very softly as  
he began to brush the towel against her.

He paused in mid-motion and gave her a slightly curious look, wondering  
what she was going to do this time. He watched as she took the towel from him  
and wrapped it around her body for a few seconds before unwrapping it. She  
then did the same to him, letting it enfold him for only a brief period of time  
before removing it.

"Come on," she said quietly, taking his hand as she gingerly stepped out  
of the shower. The damp towel was casually tossed onto the rack, leaving the  
blue 'his' towel untouched. She paused to let the floormat absorb the worst of  
the water on her feet before walking towards the door, still holding his hand  
in a gentle grip.

"Galen...." he started to say in slight confusion.

"Trust me," she said over her shoulder as she opened the bathroom door.  
The heavy cloud of steam that had built up in the bathroom promptly began to  
billow out into the rest of the room, allowing an even colder gust of air to  
surge inside to greet them both. The end result was a pair of light shivers  
and a slight increase in their pace, leaving a trail of damp footprints across  
the floor as they padded along in silence.

She led him over to the bed and climbed in, edging over to the far side to  
give him enough room. She looked up at him as he hesitated, giving him a soft  
sigh and a patient look. "What's wrong, D?" she asked quietly.

"I'm still wet," he protested, eyeing the water marks that were starting  
to form on the sheets where she had touched them.

"Yes, I left us that way for a reason," she replied. "I'll show you in a  
moment. Now you coming in or what?" she said lightly.

He gave her an uneasy look before gingerly laying down, feeling the heart-  
dotted fabric start to absorb the water almost instantly. He blinked as she  
reached down to grab the topsheet, pulling it over them almost up to the base  
of their throats. She then scooted over to him, slipping his arm around her  
and molding her body against his as she made herself comfortable. She laid her  
head down in the crook of his arm, the warmth of her breath tickling his ear as  
she exhaled slowly.

"There," she cooed softly, patting the sheet against his chest. The red  
and white linens promptly adhered to them like a second skin, molding around  
them to emphasize the curves of their naked bodies. She looked up to catch the  
truly puzzled look on his face, unable to prevent herself from giggling softly  
at the expression.

"I like sticking to the sheets," she explained softly as she closed her  
eyes, letting her arm rest on his chest. "I usually take a hot shower and then  
cool off like this. Yes, the sheets stay wet at first, but they dry out soon  
enough and cool you as it goes. And if it gets too cool, you just reach down  
and grab the blankets."

"Okay," he said slowly. The simple physics of evaporation made sense to  
him, but the reasoning for doing so wasn't so easy to grasp.

"I just figured we could cuddle for awhile, that's all," she murmured,  
edging herself a little closer to bring her lips in contact with the soft skin  
of his neck. She paused before lifting her head up to give him a playful look.  
"Or is that something else you're not used to?" she inquired lightly.

He turned his head to look at her, his expression impassive as he gazed at  
the soft contours of her face. "Why would I be?" he asked, trying to keep his  
tone free from any negative influences.

She sighed and laid her head back down, absently tracing patterns over his  
chest with a fingertip. "I've heard the stories," she said quietly. "About  
how every so often you would wind up in bed with a young woman. They all said  
the same thing, too, that you were always gentle with them. Most said that it  
was the best night of their lives, lying in your arms until you left with the  
morning sun. Surely you didn't just sweep them off of their feet, slipped them  
out of their clothes, and made them breathless with passion and pleasure."

A very soft sigh rose up from her chest as she received silence in reply,  
barely able to make out the sound of his breathing even with her head on his  
shoulder. She glanced up at him, pausing as he saw his empty gaze focused up  
at the ceiling, seeing and yet not seeing at the same time. "D?" she asked in  
a very soft whisper.

"I would rather not talk about it," he said quietly.

"Why not?" she prodded, her question causing him to refocus and cast a  
sidelong glance at her out of the corner of his eye. His head turned after a  
few seconds to look directly at her, revealing a faint veil of pain.

"I'm not interested in what the stories have said about me," he finally  
said in a somber tone. "To borrow a uniquely human phrase, I don't kiss and  
tell. It would be best if you were to form your own opinions and not rely on  
the whispered words of others who weren't there."

"Ah," she purred very softly. "The shield of honor comes to bear, hmm?  
I understand, D," she said, lifting her head up to brush her lips against his.  
"Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. Although I hope you won't blame me  
for trying to see if the truth is being told about you. I'd hate to think that  
the stories of your tenderness and gentleness are wrong...."

A very soft and hollow grunt rose up from his throat as he looked back up  
at the off-white ceiling again. "I have no desire to harm anyone who doesn't  
deserve it," he said quietly. "You should know that by now."

"And what about me, then?" she inquired softly. "I'm a dunpeal like you,  
and you already said our blood needs to be destroyed. Does the circumstances  
of my birth mean I deserve to be harmed?"

He blinked and turned to look at her, a faint chill working its way down  
his spine as he saw the somber look in her eyes. "You're different," he said  
in a calm tone. "You're not like the others."

"So what will you do with me?" she whispered softly, her eyes suddenly  
filling with painful uncertainty. She blinked hard and edged back as he sat  
up, turning to the side to put his feet on the floor. "D?" she asked as he  
leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs and bowing his head slightly.

"I don't know," he said softly, almost too softly for her to hear.

The bed creaked slightly as she sat up and moved over to him. The sheet  
draped across them both as she hugged him, gently locking her arms over his  
chest and resting her cheek against his back. He subconsciously leaned back  
against her, the odd feelings of both cool dampness and burning warmth blending  
together to provide a very unique feeling of comfort.

"D?" she said softly, her face still pressed against his upper back. "We  
discussed this once before. I'm a noble who only has my pride and honor left  
to truly call my own. I will not beg for my life or otherwise ask you to spare  
me from the death you believe I deserve."

"Galen...." he whispered hoarsely, his voice rasping in his suddenly too-  
dry throat. He closed his eyes as she turned her head, tenderly brushing her  
lips across the nape of his neck.

"All I ask is that you let me enjoy what I have," she said. "And right  
now, I have you. I don't care if that will change when the dawn comes, I just  
want to hold you for awhile."

D said nothing as he leaned back against her. He simply couldn't bring  
himself deny her that much, not even if he wanted to. He found himself wanting  
her as well, wanting to feel the warmth of her touch, the soft taste of her  
kiss. Leila's soft voice rose up from the depths of his memory, reminding him  
of the promise he had made to her. The spectral whisper was banished from his  
mind a moment later, not out of malice or pain but simply because her words  
were unnecessary this time.

He could feel the softness of her bare breasts as she hugged him tighter,  
the aching points of her nipples leaving a tiny pair of dents in his back. A  
soft blue glow filled his eyes a few moments later as she tilted her head, her  
lips sliding along the curve of his neck to kiss the side of his throat. The  
glow became stronger as the kiss deepened, feeling her lips parting to gently  
nip his flesh with her teeth.

"D? she murmured softly. "Have you ever kissed one of our kind before?"

He blinked at the question, knowing that she didn't mean the soft kisses  
they had been sharing for most of the evening. He had been bitten twice by  
vampires before, but only during the heat of battle and only because his arm  
had gotten in the way and provided a convenient attack of opportunity. There  
had likewise been a few times in which his dark bite had been his only weapon,  
used not to feast on blood but only used to seriously injure his opponent.

"No," he said very quietly. He suddenly tensed as he felt her teeth nip  
his throat again, just a little harder than the last time. Then he felt the  
twin points of her vampiric fangs, ever so lightly scratching his skin as she  
gave his throat a lingering kiss. "Galen...." he started to say, only to fall  
silent as her hand came up to his mouth, a pair of fingertips lightly pressing  
against his lips.

He simply closed his eyes as she gently tugged on him, leaning him back at  
an angle to rest against her. Her other hand came up to stroke his chest, her  
head tilting to one side to get a better angle. He knew what she was going to  
do, something he had never allowed to happen before. Various encounters with  
his kind and others had drawn his blood, but never before had he willingly let  
it be taken from him....

His entire world suddenly ground to a halt, flushing a deep shade of dark  
blue and pulsing in time with his heart as his corneas luminesced like they had  
never done before. The pain was as exquisite as it was inconsequential, deep  
and shallow at the same time, and producing a feeling unlike anything he had  
ever experienced since his birth. He realized right then and there that if  
this is what Doris had felt, or Leila, or any of the others he had taken blood  
from in the past, then he had grossly underestimated the emotional impact it  
would have had on them.

And then she started to sip the blood from his veins.

If the simple act of being bitten by her made him question everything he  
had done since the first days, then the feeling his blood drawn out by her was  
enough to sear every single synapse in his brain with pleasure. He could feel  
his body reacting as it had never done before, tensing, relaxing, melting all  
at once. He could feel everything and nothing at the same time, no idea what  
his hands were doing at the moment, no idea if he was sitting up or laying down  
or whatever. And at the moment, he didn't give a good goddamn.

Her lips, her soft and supple, wonderful lips worked gently against his  
skin as she sipped his blood, gently drawing out tiny crimson pearls of liquid  
life to bathe her tongue with his essence. Waves of pleasure crashed into him  
with each gentle stroke of that warm and wet muscle, lapping up the droplets  
that welled up through the puncture marks.

His breath left his lungs in an explosion as she bit him again, her fangs  
piercing deeper into the same spot even as his body tried to seal the wounds.  
The mixture of pain and pleasure brought him dangerously close to orgasm, the  
sheer force of his pulse making his manhood throb like a rabid animal raging  
against the bars of a cage. The rest of his body was likewise as taut, kept in  
check only by the warmth of her presence and the gentle touch on his chest.

He didn't know if he was alive or dead at that point, only aware of the  
fact that he was with her, her lips at his throat, and very slowly sampling the  
blood that burned like liquid fire in his veins. His vampire nature was well  
beyond his control, fully awake in ways it had never been allowed to be but  
still restrained by the tender force of another. He knew he would return the  
favor, he would have to lest he go completely mad, but there was something  
about the whole experience that left him content to wait his turn. She would  
be his soon, but for the moment he belonged to her in ways he simply couldn't  
have imagined before....

His whole body was suddenly wracked with the most pleasurable of spasms as  
she bit him a third time, piercing him even deeper than before. This time he  
did orgasm, the shockwave of pleasure coursing through his body until he was  
erupting like a volcano. He could feel her hand leave his chest and come down  
to grab his hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing firmly as the worst  
of the spasms finally abated.

He simply had no idea how long she tasted his blood, but he knew the exact  
moment she ceased. The loss of contact was like an icy shock, freezing his  
nerves solid and leaving him feeling utterly drained in more ways that he could  
count. Perhaps it was just the stress and the relieving of that stress in his  
body finally catching up to him, but he found himself unable to move as she  
leaned back and rested his cheek against the softness of her breasts.

It seemed an eternity passed before his strength returned, creeping along  
the length of his body and thawing his nerves from their icy prisons. His eyes  
opened a few minutes later, seeming to take forever to adjust and bring focus  
to the solid wall of blue he was seeing.

The world promptly faded to black again as she tilted his head back, her  
lips gently pressing against his to send that most delightful of electrical  
sensations throughout his body. It seemed to speed up the recovery process,  
reawakening his senses one degree at a time until he was fairly confident he  
knew were everything was again. His legs were still hanging over the edge of  
the bed, feeling dangerously cold from lack of circulation. One hand was still  
intertwined with hers while the other was.... where?

It took him a moment to realize it was wrapped around her ankle, and that  
the only way they could be in that position without breaking anything was if  
she was curled up in a ball around him. He sighed softly as he kissed her, a  
dark tingle shooting throughout his body as he could taste not just her but his  
own blood as well. The tingle deepened as her lips parted, her tongue coming  
out to very gently slide between his own lips to give him a better taste.

"D?" she whispered when she finally edged back, her voice dangerously raw  
with several emotions. "Are you alright? I.... didn't think it would have  
that strong of an effect on you...."

It took him three tries to get the knot out of his vocal chords, barely  
managing to audibly whisper her name on the third attempt. "G.... Galen," he  
rasped. "I.... have.... never...."

His voice failed him again as he focused enough to part his eyelids and  
look up at her. Her face was clearly insectoid at the moment, her usually pale  
skin a very light shade of mottled brown. A pair of sensory ridges had formed  
on her forehead like rudimentary antennae, and her glowing red eyes were very  
strongly faceted. Even with her Barbaroi blood on display like that, he still  
found her to be incredibly beautiful.

D very carefully sat up, almost falling back down as he felt a momentary  
empty feeling in his skull. His blood pressure stabilized a moment later and  
he carefully turned around. He moved to kneel next to the bed before pausing,  
casting a quick glance around as he suddenly remembered making an orgasmic mess  
in the recent past. He made a face as he saw where it had ended up, making a  
mental note to run her boots through the shower in the morning.

He returned his attention to her as he knelt down on the floor, gently  
drawing her curled-up form over to him. He then began to caress her entire  
body with his fingertips, starting at her ankles and taking his time in moving  
upwards.

The skin of her lower legs and arms had taken on a dark brown cast but had  
remained otherwise unchanged. The woodland coloring started to drain out as  
his fingertips gently caressed and massaged her, lulling her Barbaroi blood to  
sleep and restoring the pale, flawless perfection that he was used to. Her  
muscles readily relaxed at his touch, seeming to melt into patches of fibrous  
flesh that he took his time exploring and mapping.

He closed his eyes at her touch, her fingertips gliding through his still-  
damp mane of hair. He worked for several minutes by touch alone, his hands  
sliding and caressing the supple expanse of her legs. His eyes opened once  
again as he reached her upper thighs, one hand slipping between them to gently  
part her legs and expose her most sacred of treasures.

The downy hair here was the same as the rest of her hair, each individual  
strand seeming to be unable to make up its mind if it wanted to grow blue or  
green. They were softer and finer to the touch as well, a very gentle mass of  
silky strands that almost but not quite concealed everything from his gaze.

He leaned forward to kiss her there, his fingertips parting the soft mass  
of hair to let his lips brush against the velvety folds of her sex. The scent  
of her musk tickled his senses a moment later, a rich, intoxicating, almost  
dizzying scent that warmed his blood in an instant. He knew she was ready for  
him, and had been ready for quite some time. The scent only served to further  
temper his resolve to take her, to yield to her desires and not deny her the  
pleasure she needed.

He teased her for several minutes with his tongue, flicking out to caress  
the firm pearl of her womanhood from several directions. Even without hearing  
her soft cries of pleasure or feeling her hands knead his scalp, he could tell  
that he was having an effect on her, giving her the attention her body craved.

His lips finally slid upwards, taking a very slow and meandering path  
across her groin and up to the flat smoothness of her stomach. The soft sounds  
that were whispering up from her throat didn't diminish at all as he worked,  
seeming to savor his attentions without being in a frenzied rush. He figured  
she was either the most patient life-form he had ever encountered or that he  
was overlooking something else. It didn't matter to him at the moment, as he  
knew that he would put a strangle-hold on time itself if need be in order to  
pleasure her the right way.

He allowed his hand to stray back down to her sheath, lightly caressing  
and toying with the supersoft strands of hair as his lips finally reached the  
base of her breast. He decided to let his tongue do most of the work, slowly  
tracing the circumference of her breast in a large circle before moving over to  
tease the opposite one in an identical fashion.

It soon evolved into a sort of a figure-eight pattern, tonguing a circle  
around one breast before sliding across to the other. The circles began to  
shrink in size, eventually encountering the pale circles of her areola. His  
tongue was starting to get a little sore by that time, so he switched tactics  
and began to use his lips instead.

Her hands never left his neck and upper back as he continued to pleasure  
her, a soft but steady mantra of whispered moans and gentle sighs escaping her  
lips. Her hips began to twitch ever so gently, rocking back and forth in slow  
and subtle motion as his hand continued to caress her honeyed sheath. A wave  
of pleasure washed over her without warning as he opened his mouth to nip the  
throbbing, aching tightness of her nipple, bringing her to a gentle orgasm and  
catching them both by surprise.

The volume of her soft cries increased slightly as he didn't relent even  
for a moment. He gently rocked his head from side to side, passing her nipple  
between his parted teeth in a light scraping motion. A single fingertip began  
to caress the full length of her labia, first tracing one super-sensitive fold  
of flesh before repeating the same process with the other.

He lifted his head up as he heard her whisper his name, calling out for  
him in a soft voice that said she was ready for him, that she wanted him and  
couldn't wait any longer. It was a call he didn't want to refuse, giving her  
thoroughly-stimulated nipple a lingering kiss before moving up to give her a  
deep kiss on her pale blue lips. He paused for a moment as he almost sliced  
himself open on her fangs, still fully extended and prominently displayed as  
she whimpered softly.

Taking the unintentional hint, he dipped his head down to kiss her throat  
softly, marveling at the feel of her humming vocal chords beneath his lips. He  
could also feel the strength of her pulse, thrumming a heavy tempo in a most  
alluring fashion. He very gently nipped her, using the very edges of his flat  
teeth to see what sort of reaction he would draw from her.

He blinked as she tensed, her arms tightening around his shoulders in an  
almost painful grip. Her breathing drastically changed as well, deepening even  
further even as it started to rasp in her throat. Fearing that any attempt at  
biting her would make matters worse, he started to edge away only to discover  
that he didn't have any room to move at all.

"Galen?" he whispered very softly, unsure of what to do now. He received  
his answer as her hand came up to caress the back of his head, gently pressing  
his mouth back down to the soft skin of her throat. The rest of her started to  
react as well, her free hand all but dragging him into bed and drawing his body  
over hers in an unmistakable indication of what she wanted from him.

He wasn't sure which part of him reacted first, his vampiric nature as he  
kissed her throat again or his manhood as it brushed against the soft patch of  
her pubic hair. The simultaneous reaction of both was enough to overload his  
conscious mind, producing a momentary disconnect from one second to the next.  
The haze soon cleared, leaving him almost breathless with desire, a need to  
pleasure her and be pleasured.... and a hunger for her in a way he had never  
felt before.

The rich, heady scent of her blood called to him as he brought his lips  
to her throat, finding a throbbing conduit of life within moments. He kissed  
her softly, tenderly, gently as if it was the first time he had ever done so.  
Her skin seemed to dance at the contact, able to feel the vein fluttering in  
a reflexive action. The sharpened points of his fangs touched her skin next,  
just lightly enough to dent the pale flesh without breaking it. He closed his  
eyes as he felt, not just felt but heard her pulse echoing inside his ears,  
inside his mind, inside his very core.

There were no true thoughts of hesitation that he was aware of. She was  
offering him her blood, almost begging in a way for him to taste it, to savor  
her life's essence as she had his minutes ago. He was aware of the call of her  
body as well, the exquisite warmth of her sheath waiting for his hardness to  
enter her, to fill her with passion and pleasure. Never before had he been in  
such a position where a woman was offering him so much, not like this, not when  
his own body, his own blood was begging, almost screaming to accept.

So why was he hesitating?

A soft whispered voice drifted up from the depths of memory, one of the  
many voices of the past that had haunted and tormented him his entire life.  
This one, however, was one of the all-too familiar ones, coming not to wrack  
his soul with guilt or pain, but to soothe and calm his doubts.

Remember.... Leila whispered to him, a soft and loving smile on her face,  
slowly to do it right, and doing it for the right reasons....

He stopped for a moment, wondering what were the right reasons for taking  
Galen like this. Because she wanted him to? Because he wanted to? Because of  
all they had shared in the past three days? Did it matter that he would have  
to decide in two days if he had to kill her or not? Could he even be able to  
do so if he took her body and blood? Would it matter?

You made a promise, something said in the back of his mind.

Very well, he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. He would try  
to sort out things later when he had the time and luxury of being able to think  
straight, but right now he had a promise to keep....

....And a woman to make love to.

A truly deep sigh rose up from her throat as he slipped inside her, very  
gently filling her depths with a measured thrust. Her response was very much  
expected, tilting her head back even farther in a reflexive motion. Her quiet  
sigh of pleasure quickly changed to a sharp gasp as he bit down, his fangs  
carefully penetrating the large vein beneath her skin in a quick strike. Her  
blood flowed across his tongue almost instantly, the incredibly warm and rich  
taste making his senses reel with delight like no other experience could.

He almost cried as a mental fuse was blown an instant later, able to not  
just taste her blood but her emotions as well. The sensation washed over him  
with the force of a tidal wave, threatening to sweep him away in a torrent of  
pleasure, passion, pain, warmth, tenderness, happiness, contentment, desire....

The sense of the passage of time went screaming out the proverbial window  
as he began to move within her, a series of slow and gentle thrusts that left  
distinct ripples of super-sweet flavor in the taste of her blood. Each slow  
movement inside her brought out the sweetest of pleasurable tastes, and each  
measured withdrawal resulted in a keen sense of loss, almost sorrow, only to be  
replaced with a sense of yearning and anticipation for the next stroke. The  
experience left him dangerously disoriented, only able to focus on the taste of  
her blood and the feeling of her body beneath him, surrounding him.

How in the hell had he missed this one? Of all the times he had taken a  
woman's blood, he hadn't done so while actively engaged in making love to them.  
Sure, the latter tended to follow the former in almost every instance, but why  
hadn't he thought of trying them together? The result of doing so was almost  
literally blowing his mind inside-out, leaving only the barest threads of his  
consciousness intact to think about the situation.

His jaws flexed slightly to bite her again, doing so even before he could  
realize that the flow of blood had slowed down due to her regeneration. He  
didn't want to leave his fangs imbedded in her skin, afraid of what it might  
result in. He felt her body shudder beneath him as her throat was pierced for  
the second time, his eyes almost popping out of his head as her sheath became  
as tight as a vice from her orgasm.

He barely managed to retain control of his own body's response to the vast  
increase in pleasure, having the hunch that the only reason he was able to do  
so was because he had already orgasmed himself earlier. A momentary feeling of  
shame washed over him at the thought, and not just because of the mess he had  
made on her boots. Although now that he thought about it, if being bitten was  
every bit as orgasmic for her as it was for him....

He waited until she had recovered before drawing his tongue over the twin  
wounds, lapping up the crimson globs of blood before carefully biting her for  
a third time. The reaction was just as immediate as the first time, feeling  
her whole body shudder as a single entity as the waves of pleasure ran amok  
through her nervous system. Her sheath tightened around him once again, but  
even prepared for it he wasn't able to stave off a response of his own.

She seemed to pull him tightly against her as he came, almost driving his  
fangs back into her throat as she clutched him. Her internal muscles seemed to  
ripple slightly, increasing the hyper-stimulating sensation and threatening to  
spark a whole new explosion of pleasure.

They simply held one another for several minutes, his tongue still lapping  
up the droplets of blood that flowed from her throat before the wound finally  
sealed itself. Her hands began to caress his back, a slow and gentle sweeping  
of her fingertips up and down his spine. They were both quite breathless and  
beyond words, content to enjoy the intimate comfort and warmth of their mutual  
afterglow as he lay buried within her depths.

A soft, almost plaintive whimpering-moan drifted up from her throat as he  
gently withdrew from her, her arms tightening around him in an effort to keep  
him with her, inside her. A soft but deep kiss convinced her to relax, letting  
him slide off to the side just enough to take his full weight off of her. The  
very soft sigh that followed was one he easily recognized, filled with the deep  
disappointment that the love-making was officially over for the moment but at  
the same time quietly relieved to be free from the mild crushing sensation of  
his body on top of hers.

He kissed her again before edging back, giving him enough room to reach  
down and grab the blankets. The heart-dotted linens were careful drawn up to  
their waists, trapping part of the burning heat of their bodies to keep them  
warm while still letting the worst of it escape so they didn't cook themselves.

He laid his head down on her shoulder, brushing his lips against her soft  
skin as she cuddled against him. Time seemed to slip past them in silence as  
they held one another, their pulses and their breathing eventually slowing down  
to a more moderate tempo as both their passions and the air cooled.

"I see why you're not worried about the stories," Galen murmured softly  
sometime later, her fingertips coming up to stroke his hair.

"And why is that?" D inquired, only now starting to wonder just what he  
had gotten himself into this time.

She gently rolled over onto her side, very carefully pulling him up higher  
on her arm so she could bring her lips to his. "They were right about you,"  
she whispered, her lips brushing against his as she spoke. "But they don't do  
you justice. You are.... far more than they had claimed."

He couldn't have said anything in reply even if he had wanted to, finding  
the air gently drawn out of his lungs by the warmth and gentleness of her kiss.  
Her leg came up to gently slide between his own, intertwining their bodies even  
as their lips seemed to fuse together as a single entity.

"D...." she whispered softly after another minor eternity had passed. "I  
don't want you to read too much into this, but.... if you're going to kill me,  
could you.... could you do it right now?"

"What?" he said, clearly startled by the soft request.

It seemed to take a long time for her to find the words to reply. "Just  
before you came to kill my father.... he sent me away from him, saying that he  
didn't want my last memory of him to be of his death," she said in a very soft  
and somber tone. "I understood what he was saying, which is why I left him and  
waited for you outside. If.... if I am to die, D, then let it be now while I  
still have this memory of you."

"Galen...."

"Please," she whispered, giving him a tender kiss as her tears started to  
well up. "I have never felt this.... satisfied, this fulfilled, this.... happy  
in all my life. I don't want this feeling to end, D, I.... don't want to lose  
you now that I have you. In my arms.... inside me.... in my.... in my heart,"  
she whispered before her voice failed entirely.

His voice likewise refused to work as she embraced him, pressing their  
bodies together in a gentle but tight hug. The sting of her tears on his skin  
registered a moment later, tiny drops of acid-like moisture dripping onto his  
shoulder and leaving a searing path down his skin. Why tears burned him he had  
yet to figure out, but a couple of experiments awhile ago had confirmed his  
suspicions that exposure to them was every bit as dangerous as sunlight. At  
least, it was to him....

"I'm not going to kill you," he said softly, only realizing after he had  
spoken that he had already decided the issue long ago. He wouldn't be able to  
bring himself to hurt her, not unless she did something truly deserving of such  
a fatal strike. But that only made the chaos in his mind even worse. What was  
he supposed to do with her if he couldn't bring himself to kill her? And as  
long as there was another dunpeal in the world, how could his life-long quest  
ever be finished? What would all the sacrifices he had made mean then?

The deep kiss that followed his words took both their breaths away, filled  
with the joy of relief and the warmth of happiness. There was even a hint of  
renewed passion in the kiss, something that might have been explored a little  
further if they both weren't still thoroughly exhausted from earlier. Whether  
the feeling of weakness was from draining one another of blood or if it was  
because their love-making had really been that good they couldn't tell, but  
at the moment neither one really cared why.

"So...." she whispered once the kiss was broken, reaching up to stroke his  
cheek. "Now what?"

He almost sighed at the question, knowing there were literally countless  
ways he could answer her but only one would be the literal and honest truth.  
"I don't know," he replied softly, looking up at her to stare into the depths  
of her multi-faceted eyes. The red composite shape smoothly melted back into  
the liquid-like ring of blue-green a moment later, the few lingering traces of  
her unique heritage fading away as she regained full conscious control of her  
body's reactions.

"I don't suppose you'll stay with me?" she asked, seeming to be uncertain  
of the situation.

He nodded slightly. "We still have a promise," he reminded her gently.  
"We will resume traveling to your mother's resting site in the morning, and we  
should be able to figure out something by then."

"Just don't leave me, D," she implored in a soft whisper. "Not after what  
we just shared. Not just the love-making, but.... everything," she said, her  
hand coming up to press against his to intertwine their fingers.

She closed her eyes as he leaned forward, her lips parting as he gave her  
yet another soft and deep kiss. She made the softest of moaning sounds as his  
tongue momentarily flicked against her lips, causing her to reflexively try to  
capture it between her teeth. She ended up nipping his lower lip instead, the  
sensation resulting in a very quiet sigh of his own and a gentle increase in  
the tightness of their intimate embrace.

"D?" she murmured softly, very lightly chewing on his lip.

"Ask me in the morning," he replied with a faint hint of dry amusement to  
his otherwise somber tone. The tone made her giggle very softly, bringing a  
light blush to her cheeks at the realization that he had apparently been able  
to read her mind.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, giving him another kiss.

"Don't be," he replied as he leaned down, planting a light kiss on the  
swell of her breast. He paused as he felt her hand on the back of his neck,  
very gently pressing his mouth against the tightening point of her nipple. He  
allowed himself to do what she wished him to do, parting his lips slightly to  
capture the nub of sensitive flesh.

"D?" she breathed softly as the tingles of pleasure started to run rampant  
through her body once again. "Are you sure I can't convince you to make love  
to me again? It would be.... nice.... to have you inside me some more...."

He paused and lifted his head up slightly, drawing the nipple upwards with  
his lips until the tension slipped it free with the faintest of popping sounds.  
"Galen...." he started to say quietly.

"Let me enjoy you while I still have you," she whispered breathlessly.  
"Even if it means our bodies might regret it in the morning. Please...."

D paused to assess his body's condition. Being a dunpeal meant that his  
capacity for regeneration made for some truly impressive stamina. However, he  
knew that there was a major difference between sealing a wound and replenishing  
his life-energy, which between the blood-taking and dual orgasms is precisely  
what he had lost a fair amount of earlier. "It might take awhile," he warned  
her in a carefully guarded tone. "And we still have to get up in the morning,"  
he added, more as an after-thought than as an actual reason.

He almost sighed at the soft laughter that rose up from her chest, the  
motion causing her supple breasts to jiggle in a most inviting fashion. "I've  
waited my entire life to meet someone like you, D," she murmured, reaching out  
to run her fingertips through his hair again. "And you've already proven to be  
worth the wait. Take your time, hunter, please.... take your time."

This is going to be a long night, alright, he thought to himself with a  
gentle shake of his head before lowering his mouth to her body once again.


	5. Day 4 Frontier Inn and Tavern

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.)

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

((Day 4 - Frontier Inn and Tavern))

He awoke with the rising sun, the gentle tingle in his soul seeming to be  
unusually strong for some reason. He immediately regretted the rise into full  
consciousness, feeling his body quietly but firmly protest the interruption of  
its rest. The host of trivial aches and pains in his joints were both routine  
and expected, making him wonder not for the first time if it was possible for  
him to start to experience a form of arthritis after so many centuries of solid  
abuse from fighting his own kind.

A lower and slightly deeper ache registered on his mind a moment later,  
not the most gentle reminder of how he had exhausted himself last night to a  
point just short of full unconsciousness. Not that he had minded, and if he  
was correctly interpreting the moans she had made at the time she hadn't minded  
the repeat performance either. But apparently his body minded, or at least the  
part of him that had been put to slightly excessive use....

He finally managed to force his eyelids open, focusing on the red pastel  
walls of the honeymoon suite. The reminder of where exactly they were prompted  
a very faint grunt, knowing that the whispered stories were probably already  
well on their way to wider circulation. Not that he truly gave a damn, but it  
was still something to think about whenever he was in an introspective mood.  
Or at least in one worse than what was usual for him.

The level of light in the room was still fairly low, only the faintest of  
glows visible around the edges of the shuttered window that he only now just  
realized had been set into the wall. That usually meant a west-facing window,  
kept sheltered from the brunt of the sun until the afternoon and evening hours.  
It suited him just fine, not sure he presently had the strength to cope with  
the first searing rays of the sun. That would change once he fully woke up,  
but as a vampire had once said in passing, it was usually the first glimpse of  
the sun that caught you off-guard and thus would prove to be the last as well.

A quick glance showed that Galen was still curled up next to him, her  
features having slipped into her insectoid form at some point in her peaceful  
slumber. Her skin had tinted to a soft shade of woodland brown, and the ridges  
that had taken shape on her forehead seemed to be dotted with a fine layer of  
microscopic feathers. Even with the lines of her face shifted into something  
less than fully human, he still found her beauty to be incredibly alluring.

((D?)) the thing in his hand whispered as softly as it could, drawing an  
almost resentful look from D at the intrusion. ((You alright?))

"Of course," he murmured back, keeping his voice as soft as possible to  
avoid disturbing the slumbering woman next to him. A quick glance showed that  
she didn't appear to be thinking of waking up anytime soon, the faint traces of  
a smile still evident on her soft blue lips.

((Just checking,)) it replied in a relieved tone. ((I don't know what it was  
like for you, but I felt a whole lot of.... well, let's just say I was starting  
to worry about you. I mean really hard-core worry.))

"I'm fine," he said in a monotone, wondering why it was bothering him.

((Yeah, well, I just wanted to make sure, you know? Umm, I don't suppose  
I could get you to listen to me for a moment? Got something I'd like to say,  
you know, but after the mood you've been in lately.... well, let's just say I  
think I can handle eating a pillow a lot better than a tree.))

He sighed heavily, trying not to wonder what was on its mind this time.  
He had learned the hard way that it had no shortage of comments and critiques  
to make about his performance in bed whenever the situation arose, but it had  
always waited until they were back on the road before speaking up.

"Very well," he said quietly. He dared not move to look at the palm of  
his left hand given the way she was still nestled against his arm.

((Think you can handle waking up next to her for awhile?)) it asked softly.  
((I'm only asking because I think I've figured out a way for the two of you to  
be.... !!!))

D just sighed and closed his eyes, clenching his fist as tightly as he  
could manage. "Why do you persist in this?" he said in a weary tone. "Leave  
us alone."

((Honestly, do you have any idea what you're going to do with her?)) it said  
as best it could, its voice distorted as its mouth was crushed in on itself.  
((You said you can't kill her, and I don't think you'll be able to leave her by  
herself. So what other choice do you have aside from staying together?))

That caused him to stop and think for a moment. Could he remain with her?  
To say that they had gotten to know one another in the past three days would be  
an understatement on par with calling a tornado a localized wind current, but  
had they formed a strong enough bond that could keep them together? A simple  
glance off to his side suggested it already was, but what about the fact that  
she was a dunpeal and that the world needed to be free once and for all of  
the dark taint that ran through both her veins and his?

His entire adult life had been all but forced onto his path ages ago, and  
not once since he started walking it had he questioned himself this much since  
meeting her. What was it? That her life was the absolute last barrier that  
needed to fall before his own would be complete? Was it because she was the  
only one of her kind, having not just the blood of two worlds in her veins but  
three? Human, vampire, and Barbarois mutant.... she drew on all of them, she  
was all of them, the living incarnation of what they had to offer.

A simple glance showed what her body was, the insectoid lines merged with  
a vampiric form that couldn't be fully contained in an outwardly human shell.  
Even at her strongest, she couldn't mask the exotic beauty that meant she was  
more than human. But yet deep inside, well past the barriers of her flesh, her  
heart and soul appeared to be dominated by a human spirit. He knew that any  
one of her aspects could manifest itself at will, sometimes even against it,  
but that was the same way he was, his mother's human blood seeming to always be  
locked in a struggle against his father's vampiric nature.

And in order to negate the risk of his ever losing control, of unleashing  
that dark nature upon the world again, he knew that he had to die.

Which meant she would have to die as well.

But he also knew he couldn't bring himself to do it.

The conflict roiled back and forth inside him like a dark maelstrom, one  
side demanding her death and the other resolutely refusing to do so. He knew  
that he needed to resolve the situation and soon, lest it drive him completely  
mad. He couldn't leave her alone and run the risk of a resurgence in her own  
vampiric blood, but he couldn't bring himself to negate that risk in the only  
definitive way that he knew. And remaining with her....

What would that accomplish? There were times in which he couldn't even  
fully control his own dark blood, how could he dominate or otherwise control  
her blood as well? Sure, being with her was.... nice, as she quaintly put it.  
The word had come to mean so much at this point that it was almost enough to  
make him smile. Yes, he could probably manage to bring himself to enjoy her  
company for a period of time.... but how long?

For the next two days, at least, as that's how much of their journey lay  
ahead of them. He would take her to see her mother's tomb, perhaps even having  
her in his arms the rest of the time just as she lay in them at this moment.  
Once there, he would oblige her wishes and not disturb her while she spent some  
time on that holy ground. And afterwards.... what?

It'd be the perfect place to kill her, part of his mind reasoned. After  
all, what better place to be laid to rest than next to the grave of your own  
mother? And she did say that she wanted to see her once final time in life  
before joining her in death. Just a simple, clean thrust to her chest with his  
dagger to make it as quick and painless as humanly possible, as promised....

....And put her forever beyond his reach. He wouldn't feel her lips ever  
again, brushing softly against his before deepening to offer him a taste of her  
natural sweetness. He wouldn't feel her hand in his, squeezing him gently as  
her fingers slid around his to bind them closer together. He wouldn't be able  
to taste her blood, washing across his tongue in a kaleidoscope of tastes and  
flavors as he made love to her, slowly and gently into the night....

Could he really afford to lose her? The immediate answer was yes, as he  
had passed on other such feelings in the past with no permanent harm done. He  
might end up adding her voice and memory to the plethora of such phantasms in  
his mind that haunted his thoughts when he wasn't paying attention, but surely  
he could live with another voice in his mind's ear, another needle stuck into  
incorporeal flesh to add its sting to the eternal pain he was in.

He had managed just fine before meeting her, so surely he could do just as  
well without her.... right? It would be like all the other trysts he had in  
the past, coming to them in the darkness of the night, quenching the fires of  
their lust and passion to leave only extremely contented ashes behind, and then  
take his leave from them with a soft kiss once the sun rose anew. Right?

Except for one thing, a detail that had quietly been bothering him since  
he first became aware of it. Her body was incredibly soft and supple, and yet  
so amazingly strong at the same time. Her heart and soul were perfect matches  
as well, full of youthful vigor and enthusiasm, almost blazing with the heat of  
her tender passion.... except for one thing. Her passion had been as fiery as  
the core of any star, but not once had he sensed any hint of true lust.

Desire, certainly. A burning need, an almost overwhelming requirement to  
make love to him, to feel him inside her, to fill her body and her soul with  
passion. But not once had it been tainted with the greed of lust, having to  
fulfill her own desires at any expense, to truly demand more from him that he  
was giving her at any given moment. Sure, she might have whispered for him to  
pleasure her like this, or to move like that, but always it had been a shared  
experience, equally giving as much as she took to keep a level balance. And  
her level of patience with him was beyond anything he had ever encountered.

She was unlike anything he had ever encountered.

So how could he possibly let her get away from him? How could he allow  
her to forever slip beyond his reach after having her in every sense of the  
word, not just in body but in spirit as well? He wouldn't dare to think of  
holding her against her will, of course.... but what if she didn't want to go?  
Could he keep her? Would it even be possible for someone like him to have her  
by his side?

A gentle touch on his cheek startled him, blinking hard to find himself  
staring into an insectoid face that seemed more than a little angelic at that  
particular moment in time. He sighed quietly at his own reaction, turning his  
head to the side to kiss her fingertips softly.

((Good morning,)) she buzzed very softly, the metallic undertones of her  
changed voice distorting her words into near-incomprehension.

"Morning," he replied softly. His eyes closed as her hand gently twisted  
his cheek around, giving him a gentle and protracted kiss. The kiss was every  
bit as electrifying as the first one had been, seeming to send a cascade of  
tingles throughout his entire body.

((But not a good one?)) she whispered as she edged back a fraction of an  
inch, just enough to let her lips move. They still brushed against his as she  
spoke, however, the electrical feeling not diminishing in the slightest.

"Force of habit," he replied calmly. He yielded to the impulse to kiss  
her more deeply, gently pressing her against the pillows as his lips worked in  
a slow and steady rhythm. He relented after a few moments as she made a soft  
noise in her throat, clearly audible as the first stirrings of renewed passion.

Her hand came up to hold his head in place, bringing him back down to her  
to continue the kiss of quiet passion. It was quite clear that it was having  
an effect on her, the noise she was making slowly growing in volume until it  
was a fairly loud buzzing sound. Her tongue began to tease his lips, flicking  
lightly against them before sliding in between in a very gentle thrust.

Time slipped away again for a number of moments as he yielded to her, his  
lips parting to let her explore him in a new way. He found the sensation to be  
deliciously erotic, almost in a literal sense as well as their tongues touched  
and teased one another. A rapid increase in his blood temperature forced him  
to eventually push away from her, not wanting to start something that he wasn't  
fully sure he would be able to finish.

Her features had returned to normal by the time he could refocus his gaze,  
studying the soft lines of her face. Her eyes seemed to be even more liquid  
than before, faint traces of what might have been microscopic ripples playing  
back and forth along the rings of her flawless blue-green irises.

"Do you remember what I said yesterday morning?" she said in a very soft  
tone, one hand coming up to very gently trace the contours of his face. "About  
how good it felt to be woken up by you and how I wondered what the next morning  
would be like?"

"I remember," he said quietly.

She smiled at him and lightly tapped a finger against the tip of his nose.  
"What can I say, D? It really does keep getting better and better. I'm almost  
afraid to imagine what I will be waking up to tomorrow morning," she purred.

"Just as long as it's not in another honeymoon suite," he replied with a  
perfectly dead-panned expression. "The shower was nice, but I'm getting tired  
of seeing all these cutesy hearts everywhere. Did you see how they were even  
on the toilet paper?"

She blinked in surprise for a moment before seeming to come down with a  
case of the giggles. She appeared to try to speak to him, but finally gave up  
and settled for wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. He returned the  
gesture with warmth, holding her jiggling body until the giggles finally worked  
themselves out of her system.

"So you really do have a sense of humor," she purred softly, leaning over  
to brush her lips against his ear. She made a soft noise as he twisted around  
to kiss her deeply. The gesture left a gentle smile on her face when he pulled  
back, a look of tenderness reflecting in her eyes. The smile melted away a few  
moments later as he started to edge out from beneath her. "Hey, where are you  
going?" she protested softly.

"The bathroom," he said simply as he continued to extract himself. He  
paused as she grabbed his arm, looking up to find a slightly uneasy look on her  
beautiful face.

"D...." she said carefully, "You will come back to me, won't you?"

"Of course," he said, giving her a faintly suspicious look. He hesitated  
as he saw the smile slowly return to her face, suddenly wondering what she was  
up to and having the sinking feeling that it was becoming playful again. While  
that had been amply demonstrated to be a rather.... nice.... quality to have at  
times, he didn't find it to be nearly as nice to contemplate experiencing at  
this early hour of the morning. "Why do you ask?" he ventured carefully.

"I was just wondering if we could do this again sometime. You know," she  
cooed as she brushed her fingertips across his chest. "Make love like that.  
Not now, silly," she added as she caught the look on his face, almost suffering  
from another case of the giggles. "I'm not sure how you're holding up, but I  
know I need a few more hours to recover. You didn't hurt me," she quickly said  
as his expression changed yet again. She sat up and leaned over to him, giving  
him a very deep and solid kiss. "Trust me, D, that was the best night of my  
life," she breathed softly. "And I hope you'll forgive me if I want to look  
forward to having a few more of those with you. Besides, you did say that I  
should ask you again in the morning...."

"That's a little academic now, Galen," he chided her gently, a faint look  
of amusement on his face as he tossed the sheets aside and gingerly got out of  
bed. He made a face as a joint popped somewhere in the process, not really a  
painful sensation but hardly a pleasant one either.

"I've got an idea," she said as she scooted out from beneath the sheets,  
casting them aside and stretching out her nude body. She paused to stretch for  
a moment before casting a slightly playful look up at him. "Mind if we take a  
shower together again? I think we both need one, and I'm sure it will help you  
get rid of any lingering kinks. Assuming you didn't break something with that  
one," she added, making a slightly sour face as she gestured to his kneecap.

"I'm fine," he replied quietly as he looked around for where he had left  
his change of underwear.

"Shower with me anyway?" she asked softly.

He looked over at her before nodding, knowing it would probably delay them  
by a good hour or so but not really caring at this point. He took a step back  
as she climbed out of bed, watching as she stood up on her tip-toes to stretch  
her muscles in a rather provocative fashion.

"Sorry," she said as she stepped over to him to kiss his cheek. "I'm not  
used to sleeping in beds like that these days, I keep forgetting how it kinks  
different muscles. Give me a moment to use the bathroom first?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, knowing that he had asked first. "If you  
want," he said calmly, deciding that his bladder wasn't screaming loud enough  
to pose a hazard. He figured he would have to wait until they were done with  
the shower before he could make use of the toilet.

"Thank you," she purred softly as she gave him a gentle kiss, reaching  
down to playfully squeeze his backside before giving him a wink and padding  
over to the bathroom.

He waited until he heard the bathroom door close before sighing quietly,  
resisting the sudden urge to bang his head against the wall. Here he was,  
standing stark-naked in the middle of an over-the-top heart-decorated honeymoon  
suite, having just spent virtually the entire night making love to a beautiful  
young woman who was going to draw him into another shower soon, and he still  
didn't have any idea what he was going to do with her.

No matter, he thought in dismissal as he looked around. He bent down to  
pick up the packages of clean underwear, both hers and his, and started to head  
over to the bathroom door. He paused as a mental note fell out of the stack in  
the back of his mind, causing him to backtrack just slightly.

The stains on her boots had long dried out, but there was still a visible  
hint of a residue on them. The thought was enough to bring a very light blush  
of embarrassment and shame to his cheeks, carrying them over to wait patiently  
outside the bathroom door. She apparently worked faster than he had figured  
she would, as the door opened just as he reached it.

"Thanks," she said softly as she stepped aside. She glanced down at what  
he was carrying, a soft smile crossing her lips at the realization that he had  
been thoughtful enough to bring her some clean underwear. The smile quickly  
morphed into a puzzled look as she noticed he was carrying her boots as well.

"D?" she asked carefully. "What are you doing with my boots?"

"Cleaning them," he managed to say in a level tone.

"Cleaning?" she echoed, leaning over to get a better look. "Why do...?  
Oh," she added softly. A delicate blush rose to her cheeks as she looked up at  
him, remembering the sequence of events last night. "I.... didn't think you'd  
react that.... forcefully," she murmured as she thought about what she had both  
seen and tasted in his blood at that particular moment.

He shot her a slightly unamused look as he set the clothes on top of the  
toilet tank and carried the boots over to the sink. "Neither did I," he said  
in a faintly miffed tone.

She giggled quietly as she kissed his cheek, one hand straying down to  
very lightly caress his inert manhood. "It's okay, D," she said in a dulcet  
tone. "I won't tell anyone else. I mean, just think of what that would do to  
your reputation...." she added with a laugh as she shut the bathroom door.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The few patrons eating breakfast in the tavern level of the inn barely  
glanced up as D and Galen descended the stairs. The tantalizing aroma of fresh  
bacon and eggs made them both stop in their tracks, exchanging looks before  
heading over to a vacant table.

"Good morning," Rosie said quietly as she moved over to them, accepting  
the offered key from Galen. "I trust the two of you slept well?"

"I haven't slept like that in years," Galen said, somehow managing to keep  
the blush on her cheeks to a very modest minimum. "I hope you don't mind if we  
stick around for breakfast, ma'am. We've still got a lot of road ahead of us  
and something smells pretty good in here."

"Oh, come on," Rosie said in a mock-offended tone. "As if I'm going to  
rent you one of my rooms and kick you out to the street without letting you  
have a bite to eat in the morning."

Galen chuckled quietly as she squeezed D's hand. "We just thought we'd  
ask," she said softly. "So how much do we owe you for the room?"

"Pah," the bar-mistress replied. "Don't worry about it. That room barely  
gets used at all, and after hearing about what you did for Red's daughter....  
well, I met the young lady a few times myself, so I know what she means to the  
old coot. It's on the house, miss. Eh?" she added as D held out a small stack  
of coins to her.

"Please accept it," D said quietly. "We appreciated the kindness and  
generosity we were shown yesterday. We also know you have a business to run,  
and the fair value of the wine you served isn't as cheap as you think it is.  
It might even be older than you are," he added, letting his tone turn gentle so  
she wouldn't take offense at the reference to her age.

Rosie blinked and regarded him carefully before hesitantly accepting the  
offered coins. "Well, I.... I thank you for your honesty," she said, seeming  
to still be slightly nervous with his presence. She glanced down at the coins  
in her hand before looking back up at the dunpeals, clearly not sure what to  
say. Something clicked in her mind and she cast a quick glance over towards  
the kitchen, seeming to remember something. "I'll be right out with your  
breakfast," she said quickly before pausing and turning back to them. "Oh....  
how do you two want your eggs?"

Galen and D exchanged momentary glances before she looked back up at the  
bar-mistress. "Scrambled will work fine, ma'am, thank you," Galen said with a  
gentle smile. "I don't suppose I could trouble you for some fruit juice to go  
with everything?"

"Orange, apple, or grape?" Rosie promptly asked.

"Orange, please," Galen replied.

Rosie nodded and cast a glance over at D, waiting to see what he wanted.  
She received only silence and was about to ask him directly when Galen laughed  
very quietly to herself, causing the old woman's attention to shift back over  
to her. "Something wrong, miss?" she ventured.

"I think D needs some grape juice," Galen said, giving D a playful look.  
"He seems to have woken up in a slightly sour mood today. He's not a morning  
person," she added in a loud whisper.

"Oh," Rosie said quietly, giving D an unsettled look. "Well, I...."

"Orange juice will be fine, ma'am," D spoke up quietly. "Thank you." He  
waited until Rosie had returned to the kitchen before casting an unamused look  
over at a visibly amused Galen.

"You need to lighten up," she said, giving him a gentle smile as she gave  
his hand a soft squeeze. "Or are you still upset that I accidentally splashed  
water up your nose in the shower?" she added with a muted chuckle.

"I'm fine," he replied somberly, giving her a look that clearly conveyed  
his unhappiness at being reminded of the incident. He just sighed silently and  
looked around the tavern as she leaned against his arm, still trying to figure  
out what in the name of all that was holy he was going to do with both her and  
himself.

Breakfast was served in extremely short order, apparently already having  
been cooked in a large batch. Each plate was half-covered in a steaming pile  
of dark yellow scrambled eggs, accompanied by sides of bacon, hashed browns,  
and a small biscuit made from a type of grain that wasn't readily identifiable.

Aside from the fact that the orange juice tasted like it had been frozen  
solid at some point in the recent past, they didn't have any complaints about  
the meal. Even the unknown biscuit had a distinctly fresh and flavorful taste  
to it that more than made up for its uncertain nature. The plates were cleared  
in relatively short order, not so much from haste as from hunger, and as before  
Galen collected them to carry over to Rosie. A very brief exchange followed  
before the exotic-haired woman made a 'wait right there' gesture to D and went  
off to use the restroom again.

((D?)) it spoke up very quietly.

"Not now," he sighed softly, casting a dark glance down at his hand.

((Hey, I'm just wondering if you're going to do anything with that napkin,))  
it protested quietly. ((I need a little fiber every now and then, you know?))

D just looked at it for a moment before glancing around the room, casually  
picking up an unused paper napkin and balling it up in his left hand. A very  
quiet crunching sound followed as he felt the napkin disappear into the open  
mouth, not entirely sure where it would wind up and not wanting to know either.

((Mmm, thanks,)) it said in a faintly cheerful tone.

"You're welcome," D said dryly. He looked up as Galen returned, feeling  
an unknown emotion tugging on his soul as he saw the look on her face. It was  
a look of contentment, even happiness as she neared him, the corners of her  
mouth arching upwards in a soft and gentle smile. The look in her liquid-like  
eyes, however....

Both Doris and Leila had looked at him like that after he had made love to  
them, a gentle look that was simply beyond words, beyond description. And few  
words indeed had followed that look once given, accompanied by little more than  
the lightest of touches and the softest of sighs.

He leaned back slightly as she came over to him, dipping her head down to  
give him a soft kiss that was now exquisitely familiar in both sensation and  
taste. Granted the acidic aftertaste of the orange juice masked most of it,  
but he was still able to savor the unique and completely natural flavor of her  
pale blue lips.

"You ready to go?" she said quietly once the kiss was reluctantly broken.

He simply nodded and stood up, absently grabbing the sword leaning against  
the edge of the table. He cast a final look around the tavern as he slipped  
the scabbard across his back, part of him wondering if he would ever return to  
this tiny niche in human society. The thought was almost enough to make him  
pause, realizing that of all the unique places he had visited during the course  
of his travels he had never before wondered if he would return to them.

"You love-birds come back and see us one of these days," Rosie called out  
as they reached the saloon-like doors.

Galen and D exchanged startled glances before she blushed. "Thank you,  
Rosie," she called back. "We don't know when we'll be back, but if we're in  
the area we'll stop by. Say hi to Red for us," she added.

"I will," the bar-mistress promised. "You two take care of yourselves."

They both simply nodded to her and stepped outside, wincing slightly at  
the brightness of the sun. It was well above the treeline at this point, a  
less-than-subtle sign that they were getting a late start on their travels.  
They walked up the road towards the stables in silence, her hand slipping into  
his and squeezing gently as they went.

A very simple conversation with Bart and the production of a pair of coins  
was all it took for the mount to be released from the stall, fully rested and  
apparently well-fed. He seemed to snort quietly in greeting as they approached  
him, Galen patting his muzzle while D loaded the small package of dirty laundry  
in the saddle-bags. D then climbed up into the saddle and held his hand out  
to Galen, very gently pulling her up in front of him. A simple flick of the  
reins and a final nod of thanks to the stablemaster was all it took for them to  
return to the road and resume their long travel.

They followed the road north past the farmsteads and cattle fields, able  
to see the majority of the townsfolk busy in the fields and tending to their  
herds. Then they were back into the wooded areas again, both dunpeals quietly  
relieved to be out of direct sunshine. Neither would be succumbing to heat  
exposure anytime soon, but it was still a discomfort they would rather not have  
to put up with.

They eventually reached the fork in the road and headed northeast, Galen  
casually slipping her hands into D's to take the reins. She hardly moved after  
that, however, content with the feeling of his hands gently covering hers as  
they rode in a surprisingly comfortable silence.

Another two hours had passed before the mount was gently slowed to a very  
casual trot while Galen studied the terrain. A few moments of focused memory-  
searching finally produced a realization, causing her to step up the pace once  
again. The moderate pace continued for another half-hour before they finally  
came across a fairly sizable pond.

"Think this is a good place to take a break?" she asked quietly, twisting  
around to give him a curious look. A faint smile tugged on her lips as she  
only received a single nod in reply, privately amused at having gotten so used  
to reading his body language by this point.

She guided the horse over to the edge of the pond and slid out of the  
saddle, letting it enjoy a drink of the rather clear water. She waited for D  
to dismount as well before brushing past him, giving him a quick kiss before  
retrieving the dirty clothes from the corner of the saddle-bag.

"No sense in letting them reek longer than necessary," she explained as  
she fished out the small bar of soap she had taken from the suite. She then  
slipped off her boots and waded into the pond, quickly and efficiently giving  
the dirty clothes a firm scrubbing to remove the dirt and oils that had wound  
up in the fabric from prolonged usage.

D looked around the landscape as she worked, idly curious as to what sort  
of wildlife he might expect to find in the region. Small woodland creatures  
could been seen in casual abundance, a flock of doves perched on one tree and  
a number of juvenile squirrels running around the trunk of another. A fleeting  
burst of motion in the distance seemed have been caused by a small rabbit, no  
doubt reacting to the presence of a badger lumbering through a nearby bush.

((Something on your mind, D?)) the thing spoke up quietly as D simply stood  
still for several minutes, staring at the quiet terrain around him.

He said nothing, as they both knew that there was always something on  
his mind. Usually it had to do with vampires, either finding where they were  
hidden away or working out a plan to rescue someone from them, but he didn't  
need to do that anymore, now did he? All the full-blooded vampires were gone  
and the only dunpeals left were him and Galen. So what was there for him to  
think about?

It startled him to realize that he didn't have anything to think about at  
the moment, aside from what to do about Galen. He didn't want to think about  
that one right now, as it was starting to give him a major headache, but if he  
didn't have to worry about vampires.... what was left for him to think about?

((Let me guess,)) it said slowly, ((You're not thinking about your situation  
right now, so you're trying to think of something else, right? I'm willing to  
bet that it's not working too well, however, since I can hear the empty sound  
of mental gears spinning in neutral all the way over here.))

He blinked and glanced down at his hand, wondering yet again if the thing  
had somehow managed to connect itself to more than just his arm. The insight  
it had shown into his thoughts had long ago ceased being uncanny and had become  
downright frightening. Its reactions to him voicing his thoughts on occasion  
had proven that no such mind-reading was going on, but simply that it knew him  
entirely too well after being a part of him for so long.

"What do you mean?" he asked softly, returning most of his focus back to  
the woodline. He kept part of his attention on Galen, listening to her hum  
quietly to herself as she continued scrubbing their underwear. Had he been by  
himself and came across such a pond he would have simply immersed himself and  
his clothes at the same time, letting the worst of the water drip off before  
climbing back in the saddle to let the sun and the breeze dry him. That tended  
to take hours and could only be done on warm, sunny days when he didn't expect  
to be doing much, as it was extremely irritating to try to fight a vampire when  
your underwear was both cold and wet.

((I mean now that you've finished your life-long task of exterminating all  
the vampires, you're clueless about what to do with yourself now,)) it explained  
in an unusually quiet tone. ((If I were in your boots, I'd have lit up a cigar  
after killing Count Niles and probably would have gotten piss-drunk just to  
celebrate. I might even have indulged in a little casual debauchery, too,)) it  
added in a lecherous tone.

It simply laughed quietly as D turned his hand over to cast an icy look of  
unamusement at it. ((D, you need to relax,)) it said, the wrinkled face shaking  
back and forth in a gesture of resignation. ((You can do that now, you know.  
All your life it's been work, work, work. Rescue a human, kill a vampire, go  
look for another one. Rescue a human, kill a vampire, go look for another one.  
That got old centuries ago, but you kept at it and at it and at it. So guess  
what? You can't do that anymore, they're all gone now. So now you need to sit  
back and take it easy for a few, you know? You did your job, so now you can  
retire to some dimly-lit tropical paradise of an island. Or do you think you  
haven't done enough to earn that kind of reward?)) it prodded.

"Perhaps," he said quietly. "But my work is not finished just yet."

((Oh, here we go again,)) it replied, rolling its eyes. ((Right back to  
where we started a few days ago. You going to listen to me now, or are you  
just going to try to avoid the problem and go back to staring at the warm fuzzy  
critters with a whole lot of nothing on your mind?))

"Your silence would be appreciated," he said flatly, prompting a truly  
heavy sigh of resignation from the thing.

((Have it your way,)) it grumbled. ((Let me know when you get tired of empty  
thoughts so I can give you a hand in working this one out. Err, pardon the  
pun,)) it added with a soft snicker.

D remained quiet as he lowered his hand to his side, once again returning  
his gaze to the tranquil woodlands. He paused as he heard a faint sloshing  
noise, casting a glance over his shoulder to find Galen stepping out of the  
pond with the wet clothes in her hand. She gave him a faintly amused look as  
she held onto them tightly and began to whirl them over her head as rapidly as  
she could.

The edges of his mouth flicked down in a slight frown as he was splashed  
with tiny droplets of water, watching as they were scattered in a wide radius  
by her forceful motions. The worst of the water soon left the fabric, leaving  
them only moderately damp to the touch. His eyebrow rose slightly as she  
carried them over to the saddle-bags, extracting the small skein of string he  
occasionally had a use for. A length of string was measured out and used to  
secure the underwear between the saddle-bags and the horse's flank, protecting  
them from a majority of the dirt while allowing the mount's body heat to help  
dry them out.

"See anything out there?" she asked as she slipped her boots on and came  
over to him, leaning her head against his arm.

"Nothing dangerous," he replied quietly, keeping a casual eye on where the  
badger was moving. It wasn't very likely to approach them or otherwise pose a  
threat, but you only have to go up against an enraged badger once to develop a  
healthy amount of respect for the creatures.

"That's always comforting," she said softly, giving his hand a gentle  
squeeze. She looked out at the woodline for a few moments before lifting her  
head up, her expression brightening as she caught a momentary glimpse of rapid  
movement around a small bush. "Ooooh, now what do we have here?" she purred.

D cast a sidelong glance at her before looking back towards the source of  
the erratic motion, knowing that she had spotted the rabbit as well. "I know  
you're not hungry already," he pointed out in a calm tone.

"Not yet," she said lightly, absently licking her lips as she followed the  
rabbit's cautious movements. "But I can hunger for a taste of his blood, can't  
I? It wouldn't hurt either of us to feed again," she pointed out. "After last  
night, I think we're both a little.... what's a good word?" she asked in a soft  
and playful tone, leaning over to brush her lips against his ear.

"Satisfied," he said somberly.

"Perhaps," she purred as she nibbled on his earlobe. "Although I have to  
admit I am a little curious what it would be like to go hunting with you."

"What do you mean?" he asked, turning his head slightly to glance at her.

She paused and leaned back slightly, studying his eyes. "Have you ever  
gone hunting with anyone?" she inquired. "The two or however many of you there  
are working as a team to bring down your prey? My father and I used to hunt  
deer together," she explained as his eyes narrowed slightly. "It was fun. He  
wouldn't help me hunt rabbits, however, as he said they were too small to be  
worth anything more than a quick snack."

He said nothing as he looked out towards the tree containing the juvenile  
squirrels playing some sort of marsupial game. He had hunted deer as well, but  
always alone. The only times he could remember hunting anything in the company  
of another were the rare occasions in which others had gotten in his way and  
the least dangerous solution was to let them accompany him. At least, it was  
from a relative point of view. Going up against a vampire of any kind was a  
dangerous task no matter how you looked at it, but at least he could keep an  
eye on the humans and shield them from the worst of the dark horrors if he was  
around to protect them.

"I can't say that I have," he said to her, idly wondering what it would be  
like. He doubted he would do so if it involved rabbits, as they were extremely  
small targets and frustratingly agile. Perhaps she had a finer skill than he  
did for such things, but he would prefer a slightly more fulfilling target if  
one was available. Elk blood had a rather memorable flavor, but it was very  
unlikely to find one in this particular region....

"Want to try it later?" she offered softly. "There's a lake a few hours  
up the road ahead, I thought that'd make the perfect place to stop for a late  
lunch and rest the horse again. Should be plenty of deer around there, maybe  
even a moose or two if we're fortunate."

"Any bears?" he inquired. The majority of the bears in the region lived  
farther north, but it was possible for the odd stray to be around given the  
climate and local wildlife.

"With as close as we are to a human town?" she pointed out, making an idle  
gesture over her shoulder back towards the west. "I doubt it. Between the  
herds of cattle and ranchers armed with guns, I think the nearest bear would be  
a good ten miles north of here. Twenty miles if he has a brain," she added.

"Good," he said quietly, not wanting to mess with any of them if he didn't  
have to. He had encountered them several times before, only twice needing to  
draw his sword to convince them to leave him alone, but as with the experience  
with the badger, one encounter was usually enough to last a lifetime.

She laughed softly and nuzzled his ear for a moment. "Come on, pardner,"  
she said, mimicking Red's drawl fairly well. "Time to saddle up and ride on  
out of here." She giggled quietly at the look on his face and leaned forward  
for a soft kiss, shivering ever so lightly at the electric contact. "You need  
to quit being so serious all the time, D," she pointed out as the headed back  
towards the mount.

"I'm working on it," he said with a perfectly straight expression.

She giggled again as she climbed into the saddle before he could, scooting  
forward to leave him as much room as possible. She waited until he had settled  
in place before leaning back against him, one hand moving down to stroke his  
leg gently. "You're doing fine," she said gently, leaning back even further  
for one last kiss before gently urging the mount back into motion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun became hidden by a thick veil of dark gray a few hours later as a  
gentle mid-autumn storm crept through the region. It appeared that rain would  
eventually be on the way, most likely near sundown. The gradual darkening of  
the skies was a mixed blessing to the dunpeals, relieved that they would be  
further protected from the sun's searing light but wary about the soaking they  
would likely encounter in the visible future.

The lake Galen spoke of turned out to be a modestly-sized one, fed by what  
was best described as a creek with enthusiastic aspirations of grandeur. They  
circled part of the embankments until they found a spot that looked to be more  
of an oasis, neatly tucked between the lake and the fast-flowing creek. Heavy  
thickets of bushes lined the rest of the perimeter, giving them a feeling of  
isolation and privacy. They dismounted and tied the horse to a nearby tree,  
giving it ample space in which to graze on the short marsh-like grass growing  
near the water's edge.

"D," Galen said very quietly, reaching out to grab his wrist. He looked  
up at her and followed her gaze as she pointed, spotting the pair of deer off  
in the distance several hundred yards upstream. "What do you think?" she said,  
keeping her voice low so as not to startle the animals. "I don't have a taste  
for venison, but their blood makes a suitable refreshment."

He remained silent for a number of moments as he thought over what she was  
asking. He really would rather not kill them if he wasn't going to drag them  
back for roasting, but between the heat exposure the other day and having her  
take some of his blood during their love-making, the half-cup of rabbit blood  
and the few sips he had taken from her simply wouldn't be enough. That wasn't  
to say he was starving for blood at the moment, but merely that he would have  
to feed a little sooner than he would have cared to.

"Very well," he replied in a soft tone, already trying to map out the lay  
of the land so as to determine the best way to approach them.

She paused at his tone and glanced over at him. "We don't have to do this  
together if you don't want to," she pointed out. "I can handle a deer on my  
own, of course, I just thought it would be fun to try this together."

((Galen?)) the thing in D's hand suddenly spoke up in a hushed tone, taking  
them both by surprise. ((Don't mind him, deer aren't in the top category of his  
list of personal favorites. Now if you can find some elk or caribou, that'll  
get his attention.))

She paused for a moment, aware of the venomous look D was casting at the  
symbiot. "We're too far south for caribou, and you won't find any elk around  
here," she pointed out quietly. She glanced up at him as she started to wonder  
what he was going to decide.

((D, you do realize why we're doing this, I trust?)) it said to him.

"Yes, I know," he replied calmly. Had she not seen the momentary look on  
his face, she wouldn't have been able to tell from his tone that he was not  
pleased in the least to hear it speaking in the open.

((You mind if I toss out a suggestion or two?)) it asked carefully.

D and Galen exchanged wary looks before she nodded to him. He looked at  
her in silence for a number of seconds before sighing quietly, turning his hand  
over so they could both see the wrinkled face embedded in his palm. "We're  
listening," he said evenly.

((I'd think about a pincer approach.... from upstream,)) it explained. ((It  
will take a lot more work to set up, but if they catch on before you're ready  
and try to bolt, they'll head downstream and will run out of room in fairly  
short order. Granted you can't out-run them, as these guys look like they have  
'turbo' written on their cottony tails, but I think you'll be able to snag at  
least one if you have enough patience.))

Both dunpeals looked over towards the distant deer, making mental notes of  
the terrain and how to best use it. "You know...." Galen said slowly, chewing  
on the edge of her lip, "That might not be such a bad idea after all. If one  
of us crosses the creek here and we both take our time in swinging wide, sort  
of like a heart-shape.... don't look at me like that," she added as she caught  
the face D made. "Yes, I'm sick of seeing cutesy heart shapes too, but let's  
not go overboard here."

He gave her a distinctly unamused look before turning his attention back  
to the grazing deer. "How did you want to bring them down?" he asked simply.

"In a perfect world, without weapons," she replied with a shrug. "The  
idea here is to drink their blood, not spill it on the moss. Granted I'd make  
a lot less of a mess with my rapier than you would with that sword, but I've  
seen what other sharp implements of death you carry around with you. D, I like  
you and all, but you really need to lighten up," she added with a soft sigh  
as she caught the glance in her direction.

He continued to study her for a moment before once again turning his focus  
upstream. "I take it you want the buck?" he asked quietly, trying to decide on  
what sort of weapon to use. She had a valid point about the sword, which meant  
he could either use one of his daggers or the silver spikes he kept with him to  
convince werewolves that he really wasn't someone they wanted to mess with.

"If you wouldn't mind," she purred quietly, her mood starting to change as  
she focused on the impending hunt. The shift didn't go unnoticed by D, causing  
him to glance over at her once more in slight concern. He paused as she looked  
over at him, their eyes meeting in silence for a number of moments before she  
finally smirked. "I'm going to try this one without my rapier, okay?"

He nodded back to her, starting to feel an icy thread of unease wrapping  
around the base of his spine. He quickly realized that he would be able to see  
for himself if he was right or wrong about her, about how different she would  
be from the other vampires and dunpeals. Granted the hunt would have a brutal  
ending regardless, or at least it would if successful, but he suddenly wanted  
to see just how savage she would be with it.

She made a soft humming noise to herself as she stepped over to him, her  
lips brushing against his for a few moments before she turned away and headed  
into the woods. Even before she vanished from his sight he could see the first  
changes in her, the satin-like cape spreading out and taking on a camouflaged  
pattern even as her skin started to darken as she assumed her insectoid form.

((D?)) it whispered quietly. ((Time to get going, it's going to take you a  
few minutes to get into position. You going to use one of your pointy toys or  
are you going to play it by fang this time?))

"We'll see," he said simply as he started to move. He crossed over the  
rapidly-flowing creek and started to follow it north, turning at an angle to  
keep both the deer and the creek in his line-of-sight at all times. He moved  
as quickly as he could while still remaining as silent as a cat's shadow, still  
wondering how exactly he wanted to take the doe down. He figured he would try  
to drive the buck over to Galen first, giving them a decent chance at having  
one kill if not both.

He slowed down considerably as he passed the deer, still idly grazing on  
the marsh-grass and only casually paying attention to their surroundings. He  
carefully began to circle back in a gentle curve, gingerly drawing closer from  
the upstream side. He couldn't see Galen, of course, but he didn't expect to  
be able to until he was almost within striking range of the animals.

A sudden clicking noise made him freeze in his tracks, sounding to him  
like a cricket with arthritis. The deer, now only a few dozen yards away from  
him, paused for a moment to listen before resuming their gentle grazing. The  
clicking noise persisted for a few seconds before falling silent, fading away  
with a muted rattling noise.

He paused for several seconds, trying to determine if that was a natural  
sound or if Galen was playing some sort of game. He carefully crept forward  
towards the deer again, covering another dozen yards before the clicking noise  
started back up. It seemed to be slightly louder this time, and after a moment  
of concentration he thought he had a fair idea of where it was coming from.

((Sonar, anyone?)) the thing said in a very quiet tone.

"I know," he murmured back, realizing what Galen was doing now. It was a  
classic 'hammer and anvil' tactic. By mimicking a loud insect, she would be  
revealing her position to him without alerting the deer to her presence. He  
would then act as the 'hammer' and drive them towards her location where they  
could be caught between them. And as any metalsmith would tell you, the space  
between a falling hammer and a waiting anvil was the last place anyone wanted  
to be caught in.

((You still have those starburst cherries, right?)) it inquired.

D thought for a moment before slowly reaching for one of the pouches on  
his belt, extracting a pair of tiny glass nodules. The alchemical substances  
within them were highly volatile, quickly exploding with dazzling intensity a  
few seconds after the contents were allowed to mix together. A simple crushing  
motion of his hand would start the process, after which he had roughly three  
seconds to get rid of them before they erupted with a bright flash and a very  
hard bang.

((Good,)) it said with a near-silent chuckle. ((Pop left, pop right, drive  
right up the middle. She grabs the buck, the doe panics, in you go.))

He said nothing, figuring that it was a good enough plan as any. He very  
carefully switched the alchemical bombs to his other hand and drew the flower-  
etched dagger, deciding that the werewolf spikes would probably be insufficient  
and not wanting to taint the other dagger with deer blood.

Closing the distance for the last twenty yards was the hardest part, and  
not just because had to move slowly. The deer apparently ate grass as fast as  
they looked like they could run, occasionally wandering a few feet downstream  
every so often to keep munching. That meant he had move slightly faster than  
them to keep closing the distance and remain undetectable at all times.

There was one instant where he thought he might have seen Galen, catching  
the briefest of flutters against the trunk of a tree that may or may not have  
just been a random leaf. He mentally revised his assessment of the challenge  
it would be to have to try to hunt her directly, knowing that her camouflage  
abilities were by far superior to his. Whether that was due to her insectoid  
form or the silken creature she used as a cape or both, it was hard to say.

He emptied his mind of almost all thought as he finally got close enough  
to them to see their eyes. He was peering out from behind the trunk of a tree,  
perhaps a good thirty feet away from them and separated only by the flowing  
expanse of the creek. The loud chirping noises had fallen silent a few seconds  
ago, fading away with that soft rattle again. He figured that she was in front  
of the larger of the pair of trees not fifteen feet behind the buck, still not  
able to see her but estimating that it was the source of the cricket sounds.

So it begins, he thought to himself as he tensed up. The dagger was held  
tightly in his right hand, the blade held behind him to avoid having the shiny  
metal reflect even the smallest beam of light. He carefully rolled the glass  
nodules around in his hand until they were positioned just right, waiting an  
extra moment to make sure he was ready. Satisfied that he was, he took a deep  
breath and tightened his fist as hard as he could.

Both deer looked up at the faint crunching sound as the barriers between  
the nodules were broken, letting the liquids mix together. A simple and very  
subtle gesture was all it took to fling the now-reacting 'cherries' towards the  
deer, neatly landing off to the left and right. They both seemed to explode in  
the same instant, twin sparks of magnesium-like flares bursting into blinding  
existence with almost ear-shattering booms.

Precisely as expected, both deer reared back and immediately bolted away  
as he came charging out from around the tree. The buck had barely taken six  
steps before the tree in front of him seemed to split in half, reaching out in  
a blur to seize the creature by the neck. It immediately tried to jump back by  
rising up on its hind legs, only to be literally picked up off the ground by  
its throat and spun around to be slammed against the tree.

The sound of several vertebrae breaking in unison echoed across the forest  
as D drew close to the doe. Galen's attack had panicked it even more, causing  
it to try to whirl back around in confusion. It spotted D before he was close  
enough to grab it, trying to leap away and run further downstream. The tip of  
D's dagger sliced into its flank as it shot past, hampering it but not taking  
it down.

D immediately ran after it, knowing that he stood a decent chance of being  
able to down it before it got away. They ran for a good fifty yards before it  
stumbled, obviously weakened by the deep gash in its leg. The doe was able to  
recover almost instantly, but the momentary delay was just enough to allow D to  
approach within striking range.

The dagger was thrust sideways into its ribcage with enough force to break  
a pair of ribs. The creature's forelegs promptly collapsed beneath it, its  
forward momentum sending it tumbling head-over-heels into a motionless heap  
that almost took D with it.

((Tag, baby, you're it,)) the thing in his hand laughed quietly as D very  
carefully stood up. ((Damn, I haven't seen something this beautiful in years.  
Talk about a work of art, D. You probably weren't paying attention, but did  
you see the look on the buck's face when Galen popped up in front of him? I'm  
surprised he didn't piddle all over the place.))

D ignored the thing and carefully extracted his dagger from the deer's  
body. A simple check revealed that the pulse was silent, meaning that he had  
probably scored a direct hit on the doe's heart muscle. That suited him just  
fine, as he didn't care for unnecessary suffering, even if it was just a deer  
that you only killed to make a meal out of.

He looked down at the creature, its eyes half-open and frozen in the empty  
embrace of death. There was no beauty to be seen here, no work of art to be  
enjoyed. He sighed quietly as he knelt down, not really wanting to do this but  
knowing he had little choice. A slash of his dagger across the doe's throat  
opened up the main arteries, releasing a minor torrent of hot blood. The scent  
registered on his senses a moment later, a warm and inviting aroma that he did  
not overly care for but reacted instinctively to nonetheless. The world became  
tinted with blue as his vampiric nature asserted itself, leaning over to drink  
the crimson nectar of life that he needed in order to survive.

He did not stop to savor the taste as he had with Galen's blood, instead  
simply drinking his fill to quench the dark thirst that always lurked in the  
back of his mind despite his attempts to ignore it. The taste was palatable,  
if not exactly desirable. Not that he ever truly desired blood except to blunt  
the vampiric hunger, but he would admit that he had his preferences of animals  
to feed from if given a choice.

He drank until he simply couldn't drink anymore, not sure if it was due to  
being full, to the cooling temperature of the rapidly dying blood, or if he was  
simply sick of it. He lifted his head from the carcass and edged back, one  
hand absently making sure he hadn't made a mess on his tunic. The dagger was  
wiped clean on the animal's hide before he returned it to its sheath and stood  
up, casting a glance upstream to see how Galen was doing.

((Honestly, D,)) it said to him as he started to walk. ((Tell me you didn't  
enjoy that little diversion. I know you don't like having to drink blood, but  
you are who you are, after all. You'd think that after a few thousand years of  
you being you, you'd have gotten used to it by now.))

He remained silent, trying to determine the truth to its words. It would  
have been a lie to say he hadn't found the whole hunting experience to be....  
what? Fun definitely wasn't the right word, but there had been something to it  
that couldn't simply be explained away as a misunderstanding. Yes, there was  
the satisfaction of a successful hunt, but it was hard to say if that was all  
that it was. The question he needed to ask himself, he thought, was would he  
do it again? If it was worthwhile to do it a second time in his view, would  
that suggest that he liked it?

Come to think of it, wouldn't that apply to Galen as well? He knew that  
he hadn't bothered trying to resist her gentle affections since that first soft  
kiss back in the underground burrow, and even then he didn't do a damn thing to  
avoid it or otherwise indicate it wasn't welcome. He knew of the old saying in  
how silence implied consent, so didn't that mean by not resisting her touch he  
in fact consented to her attentions? And if he consented, didn't that mean he  
not only liked but welcomed them?

His silent train of thought was broken as he looked up, finding himself  
only a few yards away from where Galen was standing. He was surprised to see  
the buck still pinned against the tree, standing on its hind legs with most of  
its weight supported by Galen as she continued to remain with her lips at its  
soft white throat.

((Uh-oh,)) the thing whispered very softly as the deer's front legs started  
to twitch gently. An icy wave swept through D as he realized that the buck was  
still alive, all but completely paralyzed by the shattered spinal column. She  
was still taking blood from it, apparently in no rush to finish the task or put  
the gravely wounded creature out of its misery.

His eyes narrowed dangerously as she cast a sidelong glance at him, one  
hand letting go of the animal to make a beckoning motion. He hesitated for a  
moment before moving closer, keeping a wary eye on the buck. He could see that  
it was still fully conscious, trying to watch him with a gaze that was well and  
truly beyond terrified.

Galen began to move as he approached, startling him with the realization  
that she was removing her blouse. She quickly slipped it off completely and  
held it out to him, her other arm still holding the deer against the tree. He  
stared at her in confusion and disbelief before carefully accepting the offered  
garment, trying to figure out what in the hell she was doing.

His eyes briefly swept over her half-naked form, pausing as he saw that  
the ridges on her back seemed to have gotten larger. He studied them for a  
moment before looking back up at the rest of her, feeling his blood chill even  
further the more he thought about what she was doing to the buck.

That she needed blood was a given, and that she had to take it by force  
from a woodland animal was somewhat regretful but still completely necessary,  
simply one more link in the often-times brutal circle of life. That she had  
deliberately kept the paralyzed creature alive while she fed, however, was in  
his opinion borderline sadistic. Granted blood was the most nourishing when it  
was fresh and hot, more so if it was oxygenated blood from an artery instead of  
a vein, but it wasn't a requirement to feed from a living creature.

He remained perfectly still as she finally stepped back from the creature,  
releasing her hold and letting it fall forward to the ground. The sound of  
fractured vertebrae grinding together was clearly audible, a horrid cacophony  
that made him wince as he thought about the physics of it. The collapse was  
clearly fatal for the deer, its body twitching for several moments before it  
became utterly still as the spark of life went out in its eyes.

A single glance up at Galen was enough to explain why she had removed her  
blouse. The feeding had apparently been messy at first, as her chin and neck  
were covered with several rivulets of crimson that was slowly oozing down her  
chest. While the sight of blood usually didn't bother him in the least, the  
rather macabre sight of seeing her womanly curves stained with it made his own  
blood turn even colder.

"Sorry," she apologized softly, her cheeks taking on a dark pink tint.  
"I'm not usually this messy of an eater, but he was rather spirited in his  
resistance. I take it you managed to take down the other one as well?"

"I did," he said in a slightly flat tone as he held her blouse out to her.

She gave him a slightly uneasy look as she accepted the garment, casting  
a reflexive glance down at her bare chest. "Yeech," she sighed quietly before  
looking back up at him. "D, what did you use to scare them like that?" she  
inquired as she moved over to the edge of the creek. "You surprised the hell  
out of me too. So much so that I almost didn't see the buck," she added.

"Alchemical devices," he said in a neutral tone, unable to completely turn  
away from her as she scooped up handfuls of water to splash against her bare  
chest. His reactions were starting to drive him to distraction, finding her  
incredibly beautiful on the one hand but still deeply disturbed by her actions  
on the other.

"Well, they worked just fine," she pointed out with a soft chuckle. "I  
wasn't sure you knew what I was doing with the insect calls, and I only saw you  
moving around once or twice. That was actually a pretty good hunt for working  
together for the first time like that."

He said nothing as she continued to splash herself with water, running her  
hands over her neck and chest with efficient rubbing motions. That the sight  
was also more than a little erotic to watch was most likely unintentional, but  
he doubted she would have objected if it had been pointed out to her. She  
finally finished removing the last traces of blood from herself and stood up,  
folding the blouse and draping it over her shoulder as she drew close to him.

"Mind if we stick around to rest for a bit?" she said softly as she took  
his hand. "I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen about having to move  
around too much after feeding."

"A storm is coming soon," he reminded her in an impassive tone, casting a  
reflexive and momentary glance at her bare breasts before looking up at the  
gentle contours of her face again.

She leaned back slightly to peer behind him, deliberately arching her back  
so that her breasts were prominently thrust into the air. "Why, so there is,"  
she said coyly before straightening up. "But it's not here yet, nor will it be  
for another hour or two," she pointed out. "At least, not a rainstorm...."

He said nothing as she squeezed his hand tightly, leaning into him for a  
gentle kiss. He didn't resist the soft contact but he didn't actively yield to  
her either, standing impassively as he let her kiss him.

The kiss was broken after a moment as she leaned back, giving him an odd  
look. "D, is something wrong?" she ventured.

"We can rest here for awhile if you wish," he replied calmly, turning away  
to head back to where the mount was tied. Her hand remained around his as she  
followed, a slightly confused and uneasy look on her face.

They reached the horse after a few minutes of walking, D absently steering  
clear of the spot where the fallen doe was. He knew that nature's scavengers  
would find the carcass sooner or later, possibly even before nightfall, and the  
circle of life would thus continue to revolve without further intervention on  
his part. He paused when Galen gently tugged on his wrist, bring them both to  
a halt.

"Wait here," she said quietly in his ear as she kissed him. She gave his  
hand a final squeeze before letting go and moving over to the saddle-bags. She  
briefly checked the condition of the underwear still tied to the inside edge,  
untying them once she was satisfied that they were dry and stashing them inside  
the saddle-bag. She then extracted the ground blanket that D sometimes used to  
sleep on, carrying it back over to where the hunter was standing.

D watched in silence as she laid the blanket out and sat down on half of  
it, removing her boots and setting them aside. She then reclined back on her  
elbows and looked up at him, a soft smile tugging on her face as she saw him  
studying her exposed curves again. "Do me a favor, D?" she said softly. "Do  
something with that armor and come sit with me."

He gave her a distinctly wary look for a few seconds, suddenly getting the  
impression that she didn't really want to rest at the moment. He nonetheless  
did as she asked, first removing his sword scabbard and leaning it against a  
tree, then following up with his cape, hat, and finally the dark armor that had  
protected him fairly well for ages.

The soft smile was still on her lips as she waited patiently for him to  
finish and sit down. She reached out to him as he did so, lightly running her  
fingertips along his jaw before leaning over for a gentle kiss. The kiss soon  
became a little less gentle as she pressed down hard on his lips, gently easing  
him down against the blanket on the fairly level grass.

He looked up at her as she started to work the buttons on his tunic, very  
gently opening them one by one until his entire chest was bared. She leaned  
down to rest on one elbow as her other hand came up, lightly caressing the  
smooth expanse of his chest and abdomen. "You alright?" she asked softly as  
she studied the dark look on his face.

She received only silence in response and sighed quietly, wondering why  
she was suddenly seeing the barriers back in place around him. She reclined  
even further, laying down on her side with her head on his shoulder as one leg  
came up to rest between his. "D," she said in an even quieter tone. "I take  
it you're not in a mood to cuddle right now?"

"No," he said quietly, staring up at the overcast sky.

"Tell me why?" she implored softly. She waited for an answer that she  
really didn't expect to receive and sighed again. "D, I know you're upset with  
me for some reason. I just want to know what I did."

She idly traced random patterns on his chest as she listened to his pulse,  
hearing it thrum softly where her ear was pressed against his shoulder. It was  
a slow and steady tempo, which meant that he wasn't worked up over anything.  
His breathing was likewise deep and steady, a calm and measured pace that made  
her realize he wasn't really mad per se, but instead was.... what?

"So now you're not going to talk to me?" she prodded him softly, wondering  
if that would draw a reaction. "I had hoped that after all we've been through  
together so far, you wouldn't close yourself to me like this. What have I done  
to deserve this, D?" she said, leaning up on her elbow to stare at him. She  
reached up to tilt his head toward her, to force him to look at her. An icy  
chill filled her as he did so, his eyes seeming to be distant and impassive as  
he studied her.

((D?)) it spoke up quietly. ((I think you need to answer her....))

Galen blinked as D suddenly sat up, almost knocking her over. An uneasy  
look crossed her face as they both stood up, D casting a truly dark glare down  
at the wrinkled face in his palm.

"I said stay out of this," he said in a low tone.

((Yeah, well, this is one of those times where you need.... !!!))

Galen flinched as D lashed out, smashing the palm of his hand against the  
tree so hard that the entire trunk started to sway back and forth. The heavy  
impact sound couldn't completely block out the sound of something popping, a  
trickle of blood slowly dripping down his wrist a few seconds later.

((Grd d'mmit, D!)) it snarled, its voice mangled by the distortion of its  
face. ((When 'r you gr'ing t' learn t' lissen t' me?))

"When I ask for it," D said in a voice as cold as arctic tundra. He cast  
a glance over his shoulder as he heard Galen made a flat sound to herself, her  
eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at him.

"So is this how you treat your friends, D?" she asked in a deceptively  
calm tone. "You ignore them when you can and abuse them when you can't? I'm  
starting to wonder now what you think of me. Well, hunter?" she prompted as  
she crossed her arms over her chest. "I think you owe me an explanation."

He looked at her before removing his hand from the tree trunk, ignoring  
the chips of wood that were spat in his general direction. "Explain what?" he  
said in a neutral tone as he began to rebutton his tunic.

"Explain to me what I mean to you," she demanded. "Explain to me what  
last night meant to you. Dammit, answer me!" she yelled as he remained silent.  
"What did that mean to you? Why did you take my blood, why did you take me?"

"I didn't intend to take your blood," D said quietly as he slipped his  
armor back on and cinched it in place. "At least not at first. Blood calls to  
blood, and yours called to me."

"Okay, I can believe that," she replied in a tone only slightly mollified  
by his explanation. "And the rest? I'll take the blame for the shower, as it  
was my idea, but you certainly didn't seem to mind. Nor did you seem to have  
any hesitations about sleeping with me. I don't care who started it, it takes  
two people to make love. Or do you think it was simply sex instead?" she added  
in a dangerous tone.

She paused as he looked up at her, suddenly feeling the core of her anger  
freeze as solid as a glacier. "You came to me," D said quietly, his voice and  
expression both utterly impassive and unreadable.

"And?" she countered.

"And so I gave you what you wanted," he replied as his cape was tied into  
place and put his hat on.

"That you did, D," Galen said in a level tone. "And believe me, it really  
was the best time of my life, but don't you dare try to tell me you didn't  
enjoy it as well."

"I did," he said softly with a nod of his head.

"So why did you do it?" she demanded. "Why did you sleep with me? You  
sound like you didn't want to, and just maybe you didn't, but I still want to  
know why you did in the first place!"

((D, you need to be honest here....)) it warned him.

He ignored the voice and looked at her, asking himself the same question.  
There wasn't an easy answer, but there was a simple one that was still part of  
the truth. "I was keeping a promise," he said simply.

"What?" she said, blinking hard in confusion.

((D, you fool, what the hell are you doing?)) it said.

"What promise?" Galen said in a very guarded tone, feeling her insides  
turn even colder than before.

"A promise I made to Leila," he explained simply. "If a female companion  
ever wanted to share some intimate moments with me, I was not resist her."

((Goddamn it, have you lost your mind? D, that's not it and you know it!))

"No...." she said in a soft whisper, shaking her head back and forth. "I  
don't believe it. You can't tell me that what we had, all that we shared since  
we met.... oh, no, I don't think so, D."

((Look, will you just listen to...? MMMMRRRF!))

D said nothing as he kept his left hand pressed down on the hilt of his  
sword, fully half of it crammed inside the thing's mouth to muffle it. He  
remained motionless and silent as he saw the emotions playing across Galen's  
face like a movie caught in fast-forward, one seeming to blur into the next so  
fast that they could barely be seen.

"So that's it, then?" Galen finally said when everything quit spinning  
around inside her skull. "I'm just another story to be whispered about by the  
others when they talk about the legendary vampire-hunter?"

"Galen...." he started to say.

"No, that's fine, D," she sighed as she held up her hands. "I suppose I  
wasn't paying close attention to the subtle signs, that's all. You're not the  
kind of guy to truly open up to a woman, despite my intentions. It's a shame,  
really," she added, her tone turning bitter. "I was really starting to like  
you, D, and I mean really like you. But I guess you don't feel the same way,  
do you? No matter, hunter, I'm tired of this charade of ours. There's little  
point in trying to continue it, now is there? Draw your sword," she said.

He blinked in surprise, suddenly realizing that the situation was rapidly  
spiraling out of control. "Galen...." he started to say again.

"Let's just get this over with," she said flatly, edging back until she  
was pressed up against a tree. "I don't care anymore, D. We had our moments  
together, that will be enough for you to remember me by. If you care enough to  
remember me at all," she spat. "If you don't want me, then why bother keeping  
me around? Let it end here. Now draw your sword," she demanded coldly.

"We have a promise," he said quietly. "A pact of honor signed in blood."

"Then I release you from your obligations," she said instantly. "You are  
no longer required to protect me, nor do you need to wait to kill me. I will  
go see my mother either way, so what does it matter now? Just one thrust to my  
heart and be done with it, D."

He simply looked at her in silence for a number of moments before the edge  
of his hat tilted up. His eyes narrowed as he removed his hand from the sword  
hilt, slinging the scabbard over his back. He then very slowly reached up with  
his right hand to grasp the hilt, sliding the blade out with a very soft hiss.

((D, what the hell are you doing?!)) the thing demanded.

"Quiet," D said softly, his eyes never moving from his target.

((My ass!)) it retorted. ((D, listen to me, she's... !!!!!!!!!))

Galen gasped softly as D slid his left hand along the edged surface of his  
sword, leaving behind a curtain of crimson. She looked up into his eyes and  
suddenly felt the anger in her heart vanish, leaving behind a cold and empty  
void. "D...." she said quietly, suddenly not so sure that she wished to die.

"Do not move," D said quietly as he brought the blood-streaked blade up,  
his whole body tensing.

"Just make it quick," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper as a  
single tear welled up. "D, I.... I...." she tried to say before her voice  
failed completely, leaving her unable to express her feelings in what she felt  
were her final moments. She didn't want to die, but she would rather die by  
his hand than to have to go on without him, not after having shared so much  
with him. Even if he didn't feel the same way.

He suddenly sprang into motion, the air seeming to scream as the tip of  
his sword cut through it. She closed her eyes at the last moment, not wanting  
to spoil her last memories of the world with the sight of her life-blood being  
exposed to the air. I'm sorry, D, she thought.

The entire tree rocked from the force of the blow, a full seven inches of  
the blade becoming buried in the trunk of the tree as it clove through flesh  
like it didn't exist. A small downpour of leaves followed, shaken loose by the  
impact and scattering around them in the now-perfectly still air.

An eternity passed before Galen parted her eyes, suddenly realizing that  
something was very much amiss. A quick glance down at her bare chest showed no  
sign of injury whatsoever, a sight that took her brain an extra second to fully  
process. Blinking in confusion, she turned her head to look at him and leapt  
back in shock.

A truly massive oak spider was neatly pinned to the tree, barely inches  
away from where the top of her head had been. The highly venomous arachnid was  
a good eighteen inches wide, the twitching fangs almost two full inches long  
and filled with a toxin that was lethal within ten seconds. The frisbee-sized  
body was perfectly impaled on D's sword, a thin stream of blood and liquefied  
viscera running down the length of the blade.

She didn't say anything, couldn't say anything as he calmly extracted his  
sword free from the trunk with a firm tug on the hilt. The spider remained  
impaled along the shaft like a hideous shish-kebab, the profusely hairy legs  
still twitching spasmodically. The creature was carried over to the edge of  
the lake and casually flung into the water with a simple gesture, landing with  
a soft splash and immediately sinking out of sight.

D knelt down and calmly rinsed the ichor off of his sword, returning it to  
the scabbard on his back. He then brought out his dagger, the one still tinted  
crimson with dried blood. It took a little extra work to remove the stains  
from the metal, but he kept at it until it was completed.

He didn't look up as he heard Galen's approach, wading out until her pale  
ankles were covered in the water. He simply didn't know what to say, knowing  
that she understood the symbolic significance of his cleansing the blade of her  
blood-promise. The blade was finally cleaned and returned to the sheath as he  
stood back up. He then went over to the mount and untied it without saying a  
word or looking back, not wanting to have the memory of her face seared into  
his soul any further.

He knew she wouldn't pose a problem to humans as the other dunpeals and  
vampires had, so there was no need to kill her. He tried to think of something  
else, anything else, but his mind was simply too numb for some reason to work.  
It was simple, really. He wouldn't return unless he had a reason to, and if  
she crossed the line he would hunt her down and kill her. Simple, right? he  
thought as he climbed in the saddle, wincing as he put pressure on his wounded  
hand. That would heal soon enough, and probably the thing too, but for now....

Who knows, he thought to himself as he headed off, not bothering to look  
at the woman behind him. Everything was so cold and numb right now, but that  
would change in time, right? He recovered after Doris, he recovered after  
Leila, and he would recover after today. Simple, right?

The horse was turned towards the west, away from the lake and away from  
everything that he was trying to leave behind there. The first signs of the  
impending storm could be heard, soft rumbles of thunder gently rippling across  
the still air as they all but blocked out the sound of silent tears falling.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The silence lasted for a good half-hour before his hand healed enough to  
let the thing speak. Wrapping the reins around his hand and pulling tightly  
only bought him an extra twenty minutes of relative silence, punctuated by an  
odd snarl or growl of frustration. And then it finally screamed at him.

It wasn't an ordinary scream, one made by vocal chords vibrating around a  
column of air that could be dampened out or at least ignored. The scream came  
to him along the mental component of its voice, lancing through his skull with  
the force of a supernova and literally blotting out every single nerve impulse  
in his brain.

The sheer physical shock threw him out of the saddle, landing hard enough  
on the ground to knock the wind out of him. The mount immediately skittered  
off to the side to avoid trampling him, staying put as it was trained to do in  
just such an event.

((DAMMIT, D!)) it screamed at him with its conventional voice as D's world  
slowly returned to painful focus. ((What the fuck do you think you're doing?  
Get your pathetic ass up and go back there, right goddamned now!))

"What?" he groaned as he said up, still heavily disoriented. One thing  
that clearly registered on his mind, however, was the sheer anger that was  
being directed at him. While it had a rather expansive and earthy vocabulary,  
it had very rarely so blatantly directed such profane language at him.

((You IDIOT, you do have any idea what you just did back there?)) it  
snarled at him, the sheer fury causing his whole arm to vibrate. ((I should  
blow your brains out your ears for being so frickin' STUPID!))

"Leave me alone," D said in a low tone as he tried to stand up.

((Uh-uh, not this time,)) it snarled back. ((If you want to get rid of me,  
that's fine, go ahead and shove me in a fucking lake, but you WILL listen to  
me as I explain to your dumb ass what the hell you just did back there!))

The worst of the daze had worn off, letting him think clearly once again.  
He knew that something truly significant had indeed happened back at the lake,  
but he still wasn't sure what. And right now, he still didn't know if he truly  
wanted to find out anytime soon. But yet.... something felt wrong now.

"Alright," he said quietly, wanting to get this one over with as soon as  
possible. A gentle rumble of thunder reached his ears, warning him that the  
storm was going to break within the hour if not sooner. "Speak then."

((You're a fool, D,)) it lashed out at him. ((Worse, you're a hypocrite.  
All these years you've hunted vampires and dunpeals, your own kind and your own  
blood, and why? To spare the world the evil and pain they inflict on others.  
You've berated yourself for centuries because you share the same blood, fearing  
that you'll hurt them too if you're not careful. And when you think you've let  
yourself slip, when you think you've hurt someone, you take it out on yourself  
without stopping to figure it all out.

((I tried to tell you that you were wrong when you felt you hurt Doris by  
taking her blood and her body. Did you listen to me? Nope, sure didn't. And  
see how long it took you to realize that I was right? How many years, decades  
even of self-inflicted pain over the misguided belief that you hurt someone who  
loved you as much as Doris did?

((Well guess what, D? You really, REALLY did it this time. You know  
what you did back there? You hurt Galen. I mean you might as well have killed  
her to spare her the pain you just inflicted on her. You left her, D, you just  
turned around and left her behind. Alone. You know that's her worst fear, D,  
you know it because she told you herself. She fears being alone, and that's  
exactly what you deliberately did to her. You abandoned her, D. You know, I  
don't agree with what Carmilla did in her time, but I remember what she said to  
you when she confronted you, and I have to agree with one thing she said. You  
should be ASHAMED of yourself!))

The weight of the realization came crashing down on his conscience like a  
ton of bricks, his body collapsing out from underneath him and dropping him  
hard to his knees. He landed on his backside a moment later, his breath all  
but frozen in his throat as the harsh voice sank in.

((And you don't even know the half of it,)) it continued flatly. ((You are  
so blind sometimes, it sickens me to think I'm a part of you. Did you hear a  
goddamned word she said to you since you met? Back on the road to the human  
town, when the two of you were holding one another as the wagon passed us? She  
said she had feelings for you, you fool, and when a woman says she has feelings  
for you, it means something.

((And what about last night? I almost asked for a cigarette myself just  
from watching you two. And I'll be damned if that hadn't been world-class  
love-making back there. I don't mean good sex, D, I mean two hearts and souls  
merged into a single entity love-making. She meant it, and you meant it, and  
you just decide to walk away from it the next afternoon? BULLSHIT! Here's  
what you don't know because you're too freaking STUPID to figure out: Galen  
loves you.

((That's right, Galen loves you, D, only she doesn't even know it herself.  
Why doesn't she know it? Because she's never been in love like this before!  
How in the hell is she supposed to know what something is like if she's never  
been in it? Oh, but it gets better, D, it really does. Know what is going to  
happen to her now that she thinks you abandoned her? She's going to look back  
on her feelings for you and get bitter, I mean making lemons seem like sugar in  
comparison bitter. And so the next time she starts to experience those same  
feelings of love, she'll end up thinking of you and will end up connecting the  
two with unpleasant results. Great going, D, you just ruined any hope of love  
for her for the foreseeable future. A love she specifically asked if you could  
try to teach her so she would know what it felt like. Job well done.))

The voice echoing in his skull and his ears made him honestly and truly  
consider drawing his dagger, not to silence it but to end his own life in an  
attempt at atonement. How could he have missed seeing that? It made sense now  
that he knew what to look for, and it was right. It was absolutely right.

And he had just thrown her love away. No, not thrown, kicked. Shoved.  
Deliberately and forcefully rejected. All they had shared over the past four  
days, all the little moments and looks and touches and gestures.... what had he  
done? What had he done to her?

((And you know what else, D?)) it continued, seemingly oblivious to D's  
sudden inner turmoil. ((You love her too, only you have your head so far up  
your ass that you can't see a damn thing. How do you think you felt when you  
were with Doris? Okay, so you really pooched that one, you didn't know what  
you were doing and you royally blew that opportunity to share in her love. It  
only took you a few hundred years to pick up on that one, it's alright.

((You then got what most others don't get in life, D, you got a second  
chance at love when Leila came along. She showed you how to truly appreciate  
the many aspects of love, the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. And  
just like before, you screwed that one up too when you left her. You gave her  
the best night of her life and were gone in the morning, even after she helped  
you learn about the error you made the first time.

((So get this, D. You must be the most fortunate sonofabitch in history,  
because you got a third chance. Yup, you got a third chance at true love, and  
it was with Galen. The absolute last one of your kind left, the only woman  
in known history with the blood of three different species in her veins. The  
odds of that are what, in the billions if not trillions? You had her, D, you  
had her in your arms, you had her in bed, you had her love.... and you just  
pushed her away. You blew a third chance at love, D, and this one would have  
literally meant the world to you. You could have retired from hunting, as you  
already killed off all your prey, and you could spend the rest of your eternal  
lifespan with her at your side. How many can have a true love at their side  
for damn near a literal eternity? Ageless beyond centuries, perfect beauty  
unchanging with the seasons.... AND YOU FUCKING BLEW IT!))

D came dangerously close to sobbing softly as he held his hands up to his  
face, feeling the burning sensation in his eyes. A pair of tears slipped out  
of the corner of his eyes, glittering trails of saline that left behind pale  
pink lines of color as they seared his flesh.

He had ruined it, oh he had ruined it all. How could he possibly look at  
himself in the mirror ever again? He had been given three chances, met three  
extremely beautiful and lovely youthful women who had wanting nothing more than  
to love him. And like a fool he turned them away, and all for what? What  
was it that had caused him to spurn their attentions, to leave them behind and  
return to the cold and empty life of a hunter working towards a goal that would  
ultimately end with his own destruction? All for what?

((D, put it down,)) it suddenly said as the dagger was slipped out of his  
belt. ((You know, in another time and place I'd be cheering you on and telling  
you to make it messy, but you don't want to do that just yet.))

"Why?" he asked, his voice scarcely audible even to his own ears. His  
entire body was trembling now, shaking at the realization that he had destroyed  
not just his life but everyone else's as well in his empty pursuit of revenge,  
of vengeance against his own kind for simply existing with a hunger for blood.  
How was it possible for his own existence to continue when he was clearly far  
worse than any of the vampires he had slain?

((Why?)) it echoed gently. ((It's simple, D, honest. You can't change what  
you've done in the past, you can't go back to be with Doris or Leila. But what  
you can still do is go back to Galen.))

"What?" he whispered softly.

((You can go back to her, D, but you have to hurry,)) it explained. ((You  
need to find her before she slips from your grasp forever. I think there is  
still time to do so, time to find her again. And when you do, you had better  
be on your knees and begging her with your entire soul for forgiveness, begging  
her to give you the chance to prove your love for her now that you know what  
you truly have with her. Even then that might not be enough, but at this point  
you already have lost everything except that one glimmer of hope.

((She's hurt, D, she's hurt bad on the inside and probably like she's never  
been hurt before. You have to find her before she tries to hurt herself. I  
think she will if left alone for long enough. Granted you have me to try to  
keep your dumb ass company, but if she feels truly alone now.... what will her  
death matter to her? If she was ready to die earlier, think about now.))

"Galen...." he whispered softly. He looked up as he felt the first tiny  
drops of rain on his face, still able to keenly feel the passage of the pair  
of tears he had shed.

Tears that hadn't been shed since his mother's death.

((D, look at me,)) it said quietly. It waited until he turned his hand over  
to expose the wrinkled face before continuing. ((You have a choice to make now.  
You can either just sit here on your ass and do nothing, in which case I will  
advocate that you slit your own throat to put us both out of your misery, or  
you can get up off your ass, get back on that horse, and ride like the living  
wind back to where she was and find her. Remember how she said that you were  
her last hope, back in the burrow? Now she is YOUR last hope, D. Either find  
her and experience true love as it was meant to be, or have the good grace to  
curl up and die. Now decide.))

The dagger sliced into his soft flesh as he scrambled to his feet, cutting  
a deep gash along his arm in his careless haste. He only paused long enough to  
shove the weapon back into his belt before literally leaping into the saddle,  
startling the mount into rearing up on his hind legs. A sharp crack of the  
reins was all it took to convince the horse to thunder forward into a fierce  
gallop, turning around back towards the east to head directly into the storm  
coloring the horizon with jagged bolts of lightning.

And, he hoped, back towards the only thing that mattered to him now.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took him almost three hours to reach the copse of trees where he was  
now standing, looking around the soaked and gloomy terrain in studious silence.  
Returning to the lake had only taken thirty minutes, but of course she had  
already left by then. The falling rain proved to be as much of a blessing at  
it was a curse, turning the ground into a sodden mess that obscured any hints  
as to which direction she had taken.

A full hour of careful searching finally revealed the shallow tracks of a  
fairly light-weight individual. He doubted they would have been left at all  
under normal circumstances, but now that the ground was somewhat muddy it was  
far easier to leave tracks.

The rest of the time was spent following the trail, seeming to head in a  
generally north-eastern direction. He had to dismount and study the tracks on  
two different occasions as they seemed to fade, spending precious time trying  
to pick up the trail again.

The third time, however, they simply faded out completely and even a very  
intense search of the area within fifty yards produced no new footprints for  
him to follow. He returned to the spot where they became too shallow to track  
further and stared at the trees, wondering if that meant she was still in the  
area. The rain was falling at a steady pace now, not too heavily but still  
hard enough to effectively deafen him to any quiet background noise.

((D?)) it spoke up quietly as he knelt down to touch the last footprints.  
((Maybe it's just me being wishful, but I think she still might be nearby. I  
mean, look at the ground. It's all soft and muddy, it's almost impossible not  
to leave a trail if you're simply walking through.))

"Can you sense her?" D asked as he stood up, very slowly turning around in  
a full circle with his left palm held out. He didn't dare contemplate what it  
would mean if he couldn't find her. He was still a hunter and she was now his  
quarry, but he was hunting her for entirely different reasons than what had  
driven him to find the other vampires and dunpeals.

It sighed quietly after a few minutes of concentration and focus. ((Sorry,  
D, this rain is making things very difficult. I can't see anything, can't hear  
anything, I don't smell anything, don't feel any unexplained heat-blooms....))

"What about the metal of her rapier?" D inquired as calmly as he could.  
He was starting to become afraid now, scared of what he might find.... or fail  
to find. He tried to mask his feelings as best he could, letting his armor of  
isolation project a solid and steady facade for him.

((Oops, I didn't think about that, hang on,)) it replied quietly, extending  
its astral senses once again. It began to project the dimensional equivalent  
of radar, sending out undetectable waves of energy and trying to listen for the  
unique echo of the platinum-silver amalgam that the weapon was composed of.

He said nothing as he began to sweep his arm in a slow circle again, not  
sure what he would be able to say to her even if he did manage to find her. He  
knew he had to apologize somehow, apologize for hurting and abandoning her, but  
the words simply wouldn't form in his mind. How do you say you're sorry, how  
do you ask for forgiveness and a chance for atonement when you don't even know  
how to forgive yourself? His own death probably wouldn't even come close to  
being a proper penance for his sin, his crime. So how could she be expected to  
be able to accept his apology, to forgive him for the pain he caused her?

((D, I think I have something,)) it suddenly said, causing him to freeze in  
mid-motion. ((I can't pinpoint it for you, but it's still worth checking out.  
Over there by that cluster of oak trees.))

He lowered his arm to his side and began to head towards the indicated  
direction. He immediately noticed that the ground here was both firmer and  
more rocky than the rest of the land, meaning that tracks were less likely to  
be made here. Could she have come this way? Possibly so, but he didn't dare  
to hope just yet. Hope was not what he needed right now, a double-edged sword  
hanging over his head that was ready to fall in an instant. He would either  
find her or he wouldn't, it was that simple.

The oak trees were all fairly old, each one wider than he was and reaching  
up to form the topmost layer of the overhead canopy. He stopped to examine  
each one, seeing if there were any signs of claw-marks or indications that she  
might have passed by here. If she was hiding high up in the trees there was  
simply no way he could follow her. Granted he could probably scale his way up  
to the lower branches, even in this wet weather, but he couldn't compete with  
the gripping power and climbing ability of her insectoid form even if the bark  
had been perfectly dry.

He couldn't find any indication that she was around, but something in the  
back of his mind told him that she was here, somewhere. It wasn't a faint,  
lingering thread of hope trying to claw its way up from his heart, but rather  
his hunter's instincts tell him that she had to be around here somewhere.  
Where else could she have gone? Underground, perhaps, but not in a rainstorm  
that would pose a clear and obvious flooding hazard. Unless, of course, she  
didn't care if she drowned or not, but that was not what he needed to think  
about right now....

A sudden thought popped into his mind, causing him to cast a quick glance  
at the western horizon. It was impossible to see where the sun was right now,  
of course, but he got the impression that it was probably fairly low. The sky  
was still rather dark and had been for some time, but perhaps it had gotten a  
little darker in the past hour or so.

"What time is it?" he suddenly asked, looking down at his hand.

((Huh?)) it replied, clearly surprised by the question.

"How soon until sunset?" he persisted in a moderate tone.

((Hmm.... probably a good hour or so away. D, what are you thinking?))

D sighed softly and looked around the land, trying to see if anything was  
out of the ordinary. "She reacts to the setting sun like I do, only stronger,"  
he explained. "You might be able to pick up on that when it happens."

((Maybe,)) it hedged quietly. ((A lot can happen in an hour, however.))

He said nothing as he turned in a slow circle again, studying the trees.  
She is here somewhere, he thought to himself as he narrowing his eyes. She is  
not a hunter like I am, but is still a very experienced woodsman. Her skill in  
hiding herself is superior to mine, and chance detection is almost impossible.  
She knows my skills and she knows how much I know about her. If she doesn't  
wish to be found, she will use that against me. She won't try using a cocoon  
shape but will try something else. The silken with her is a highly adaptable  
creature, so she knows she has options. She will remain with or near a tree  
given her ability to draw strength from it. So if I were confident I wouldn't  
be seen, where would I hide?

"In plain sight," D muttered very softly to himself.

((What?)) the thing asked carefully.

"She's here," he said quietly, "And I'm looking in the wrong places. If  
you want to throw off a hunter, you do exactly the opposite of what they would  
expect you to do...."

((Uh, you sure you're okay?)) it asked tentatively. ((Hey, wait, where are  
you going?))

He said nothing as he began to circle the trees one by one. Instead of  
looking up at the bark or higher up into the branches, he looked down at the  
base of the tree, searching for a root-like protrusion that was just a little  
shorter and stubbier than the others.

He paused as he found it on the fourth tree, neatly tucked between two  
much larger root gnarls. A visual inspection showed that the grain and the  
pattern of the bark matched the tree perfectly.... with the single exception of  
what appeared to be a hairline seam against the trunk itself.

The bark was rough like any other as he lightly brushed his hand against  
it. It didn't feel any warmer or drier than everything else, but there was a  
very faint feeling that it wasn't what it seemed to be. He gently sat down on  
the adjoining root and stroked the rough surface, not sure what else to do and  
not wanting to forcibly violate her privacy if she didn't want to come out.

A full hour slipped past him as he sat, the only motion of his body coming  
from the muscles in his arm as he brushed his hand across the stubby root-like  
structure, over and over and over again. The rain continued to pour down over  
everything without ceasing, soaking him down to his underwear and threatening  
to penetrate the waterproof pouches that held a few alchemical items that were  
dangerously reactive when exposed to moisture.

He didn't care about anything anymore at this point, knowing that she was  
indeed his last hope for love, for happiness, for his soul's salvation. He  
would remain here with her until the situation changed somehow, not caring if  
it meant he would die here. He was already dead without her, damned by his own  
conscience to the empty void of oblivion, his hand stayed from the sword that  
he would use to cast himself into that pit only by the single thread of hope  
that she might forgive him, that she might reach out to him and ask him to stay  
with her for just a few more moments.

The tingle of the setting sun took him by surprise, causing him to shiver  
ever so slightly. The bark beneath his hand seemed to shudder violently for a  
moment in the same instant, bringing him a feeling of relief that he had indeed  
found where she was hiding. The only unknown now was whether or not she would  
continue to hide from him, to shut him out as he had her hours ago.

The realization of poetic justice possibly being served on his dark soul  
was almost enough to bring him to tears again. How ironic could it be to have  
sacrificed so much, to have gone through all this pain and suffering since he  
killed the first vampire, only to have it end like this? To hear the voices of  
all those who had sought to be close to him, the voices of all those he had  
cast aside to pursue his goal, all of them silent now with the satisfaction of  
seeing him so stricken by the same pain, the same rejection he had made them  
experience so keenly?

He lifted his head as he felt the faintest hint of motion beneath his  
ceaselessly moving fingertips, not pausing the stroking gesture as the top of  
the root structure folded back. It revealed itself as a hood of sorts, very  
quietly slipping down to expose a mass of soft blue-green hair. His hand came  
up to touch her hair without thinking, his fingertips slipping among the fine  
strands to gently brush her hair.

Time seemed to remain frozen for the longest time, stroking her hair in an  
endless series of gentle motions before her head lifted up to look at him. It  
was obvious she had been crying, her normally blue-green eyes almost a solid  
mass of red. Not the red of her vampiric or insectoid forms, but the redness  
of bloodshot eyes spilling countless tears.

He looked at her and tried to speak, his voice refusing to work as he saw  
the depth of pain and sorrow in her eyes. This was his fault, this was all  
his fault. She never should have been made to feel such pain, to have to bear  
such an emotional burden on her innocent soul.

"D?" she breathed, her voice sounding hoarse and raw. "Why did you come  
back to find me?"

Because I was wrong, D thought to himself. Because I promised to protect  
you regardless. Because I hurt you. Because you asked me never to leave you.  
Because I want you. Because I need you. Because....

"I love you," he said very softly.

Her breath suddenly seemed to catch in her throat, her liquid-like irises  
starting to visibly ripple with microscopic disturbances. "Why.... why didn't  
you say something, then?" she whispered. "Why did you leave me?"

He sighed and bowed his head, sending a small cascade of rainwater over  
the brim of his hat to splash against his face like so many tears. "Because I  
was a fool," he whispered back. "I didn't realize what I had until.... until  
I thought you were gone. Galen.... I know there aren't any words to say that  
would make up for what I've done, for how I've hurt you. All I can say is....  
I love you, and I'm sorry."

Her cape seemed to shimmer slightly before returning to normal, revealing  
the way she was curled up into a tight ball as she huddled against the base of  
the tree. She very slowly relaxed her arms and leaned back, the blanket from  
the saddle-bag neatly folded into a small square in her lap. Both the ground  
blanket and her clothes were as thoroughly soaked as his clothes were, sticking  
to her slender form like a second skin.

"D...." she said very quietly, her face a mask of deep uncertainty. "So  
now what?"

"I don't care," he replied calmly, drawing a startled blink from her. "As  
long as I have you, it doesn't matter either." He looked like he might have  
said more before sighing very softly to himself, reaching out to brush the back  
of his fingers against her cheek in a very soft touch.

She looked up at him, clearly on the verge of tears once more. "So what  
do you want from me?" she asked in a hollow tone.

"The love you've shown me all along," he replied quietly. "The love I was  
too blind to see until I saw only an empty void, the love I was too deaf to  
hear until I heard only empty silence, the love I was too cold to feel until I  
felt the warmth vanish from my heart. Now that I know what it's like to be  
without you, even if only for a few moments.... I would rather face oblivion  
than face eternity devoid of your presence in my life, your love in my heart,  
and your warmth in my soul."

The soggy blanket tumbled out of her lap as she leaned over, wrapping her  
arms around him in a fierce embrace. His arms settled around her shoulders a  
moment later as they held one another, ignoring the chill of clammy flesh as  
they pressed against one another. The sobbing started a few moments later, her  
body wracked with gentle spasms as she cried into his shoulder.

A single tear slid down D's cheek as well, moving in perfect silence to  
join the rest of the rain coursing down his face. The only indication that it  
was different than the other droplets was the faint red line it left behind,  
lightly burning his pale skin as if it were a mild acid instead of a tear.

They held one another in the rain, a gentle tempo of what some called the  
tears of heaven falling around them at a steady rate. The droplets started to  
become smaller and lighter as time passed, neither dunpeal moving a muscle save  
for the slightly unsteady rising and falling of their chests as they breathed.  
The true darkness of night enveloped them as the rain finally ceased, only the  
odd glob of water dripping down from the tree above them continuing to splash  
down on their bodies.

A soft rumble of thunder caused D to lift his head from her shoulder, just  
slightly enough to catch a glimpse of the flickering horizon. "We should try  
to find shelter," he murmured softly in her ear as he lowered his head again.  
"The storm isn't over yet."

"Would it matter?" she whispered back. "We can't get soaked any worse."

"It's not the rain I'm concerned about," he replied.

She sighed and squeezed him tightly. "Let the lightning strike us," she  
murmured. "I don't care anymore, just as long as I die in your arms."

He might have laughed if he wasn't so.... tired, so weary. "Didn't your  
father ever warn you to be careful of what you wish for?" he said in a neutral  
tone, lifting his head up just enough to look into her eyes.

She leaned back just slightly, returning his gaze with a look of slight  
confusion and curiosity. "No," she said slowly. "Why would he?"

"It's an old saying," he explained. "Be careful what you wish for since  
you just might get it."

She just looked at him in silence for a moment before the corners of her  
mouth twitched slightly into what might have been the beginnings of a smile.  
"D?" she said in a faintly amused tone. "Why now?"

He blinked and regarded her carefully. "I don't understand."

The ghost of her smile started to take on a more definitive form as she  
rested her head against his shoulder again. "Of all the times in which to  
remember where you put your sense of humor.... why now?" She lifted her head  
back up to look at him as he laughed very softly, the almost inaudible noise  
barely escaping his throat.

"I think it's your fault," he said softly, his lips starting to curl up in  
a gentle smile.

"My fault?" she echoed in uncertain disbelief.

"It seems that you bring out the best in me," D said calmly, the faint  
smile still present on his lips.

A delicate blue-green eyebrow was raised in remote amusement before she  
started to smile gently in return. "D?" she whispered. "Are you alright? I  
don't think I've ever seen you smile before."

He leaned forward, just enough to brush his lips against hers in a soft  
kiss. "Until I met you, Galen, I didn't have anything worth smiling about,"  
he breathed, letting his lips brush against hers as he spoke. The kiss was  
deepened as she pressed against him, the contact sending the sharpest tingle  
yet coursing through both their bodies.

The tingle abruptly changed a few seconds later, the ultra-fine hair on  
their arms raising slightly as the sky was filled with a blinding flash for a  
brief instant. The ground was shaken a few seconds later, the heavy clap of  
thunder rolling over them in a poignant reminder that the storm had gotten a  
second wind of sorts.

"Okay, maybe we do need to think about this one," she said quietly once  
the rippling sound in the air faded away. She sighed heavily and leaned back  
to look into his eyes, her own suddenly filled with an incredible amount of  
sadness and weariness. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to kill me in my  
sleep, by chance?" she asked, seeming to be perfectly serious.

He blinked hard at the question, trying to figure out just why the hell  
she was even asking such a thing. "What?" he said, letting his state of shock  
color his voice with disbelief.

"It's.... a long story, D," she said very softly. "Let's just say that I  
will be in an incredible amount of pain once the sun rises, and I'd rather not  
have to suffer through it again. Not unless...."

"Go on," he said softly as she trailed off.

She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him, not able to look  
into his eyes anymore. "Not unless you can make it better," she whispered.  
"Shielding me from the sun will only prolong the inevitable, and there's simply  
no way to block out the pain, the pain of.... of being burned alive."

"Galen, what did you do?" he blurted out as his insides suddenly became as  
cold as the arctic seas. He knew it was possible for dunpeals to suffer the  
same fate as vampires when exposed to the sun, but only if they were already  
dangerously exhausted and weakened from something else first. Something like  
a toxin or a poison....

"It's not deliberate, I assure you," she said in a quiet, almost brittle  
tone. "It's just my Barbaroi blood exacting a toll for remaining alive." She  
opened her eyes as she felt his hand on her cheek, very gently tilting her head  
up to look at him.

He opened his mouth to speak to her but was pre-empted by another bright  
stroke of lightning. He waited until the sharp clap of thunder had faded from  
their ears before trying to speak again. "Galen, please tell me," he said in  
a very soft tone. "I don't want to lose you again, not now. Not after I've  
lost so much. Please," he added in a whisper.

She looked up at him in silence, her irises starting to ripple slightly  
again. "I'll.... I'll explain it in the morning before the sun rises," she  
finally said. "But only if you spend the night with me, in my world."

He nodded instantly, not caring what she meant as long as he was with her.  
The back of his mind was unusually persistent with a warning, however, causing  
him to pause after a few seconds to really think about what exactly she might  
have meant. "Galen, what...?" he started to say.

He fell silent as she leaned forward to kiss him, a soft and fairly deep  
sensation that he found to be surprisingly calming. "Trust me?" she breathed  
softly, her lips never leaving his.

"With my life," he replied quietly. A silent sigh of contentment rose up  
from his chest as she deepened the kiss again before pulling back, very slowly  
rising to her feet. He stood up with her as well, one hand absently reaching  
out to steady himself against the trunk of the tree.

"Where's your horse?" she asked as she glanced around. She flinched as he  
promptly made a piercing whistle, giving him a slightly disturbed look at the  
volume of the call. The sound of hooves registered on her ears a few moments  
later, turning around to see the mount obediently approaching them. "Alright,"  
she said as she unbuckled her rapier holster from her belt. "Go ahead and get  
undressed. Everything except your cape," she added.

He paused to give her a slightly uncertain look before nodding, moving  
over to the mount to open up the saddle-bags. The bags were loaded over the  
next few minutes with their clothes and as much of their gear as they could  
manage to cram inside. His sword and her rapier were wrapped in the soaked  
ground blanket and securely tied in a neat bundle that was then tied to one of  
the oak trees several yards away, not wanting the metals in the weapons to be  
anywhere near either them or the horse should they act as lightning rods.

The task was soon finished and the horse turned loose to meander about on  
its own, leaving D and Galen standing completely naked save for the dark capes  
wrapped around them like wet blankets. She smiled at him and moved over to  
kiss him, very gently guiding him back until he was pressed against the trunk  
of the tree. He kissed her back with gentle warmth and passion, his hands  
coming up to very lightly caress her hips. He moved to slide them around to  
her back when she suddenly tensed, leaning her head back to look at him.

"Don't," she said quickly. "I'm.... my back is sensitive right now," she  
explained in a far more softer tone. "Please, hold me however you need to but  
don't touch my back."

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern.

"I don't know," she replied, her voice almost a whimper. "We'll just have  
to see in the morning. Just hang onto my shoulders, okay?" she said as she  
pressed herself against him, laying her hands on the trunk of the tree.

He nodded and put his arms around her, thinking he had a good idea of what  
she had in mind. She gave him a deep kiss as she braced herself, the skin of  
her hands and feet turning a dark brown as she partially assumed her insectoid  
form. She waited until the gnarled claws had formed before taking a very deep  
breath. It proved to be a minor mistake, as the expansion of her chest caused  
her nipples to brush against his chest. The intimate contact produced a very  
sharp electric sensation that almost drove the air back out of her lungs in a  
soft gasp. A faint blush tinted her cheeks as she edged back a few inches to  
try again, this time securing a full breath of air before reaching up to bury  
her claws as deep in the bark as she could.

His eyebrows rose up in surprise as she began to very carefully climb the  
tree, holding tightly onto her as he was pulled up off the ground. She halted  
once she was sure they were both supported only by her claws, adjusting the  
position of her legs for greater support. More dark gnarls began to form along  
her lower body as she drew her legs up even higher, essentially straddling him  
to keep his waist securely pinned.

((Can you command your cloak to change shape?)) she whispered to him, her  
voice distorted by both the strain and her insectoid shape. He nodded to her  
and she went on to explain what she wanted. ((Form it into a padded brace for  
you to sit on, and feel free to further anchor yourself with supports.))

He thought about it for a moment before he closed his eyes, turning his  
focus inward. The force of his will began to manifest after a few seconds, the  
bottom hem of his cape drawing up and bunching together beneath his backside.  
A sort of shelf protruded forward, hardening to the tensile strength of wood  
after a few seconds. A series of brace supports began to grow out from the  
bark-facing side of his cape, looking like a series of short spines that were  
driven into the wood. The effort of focusing his will was exhausting, but he  
kept at it until the entire fabric of his cape had solidified into a rigid but  
still fairly padded configuration.

An ominous creaking sound rose up around them as he carefully settled his  
weight on the structure, seeming to be little more than a rudimentary chair.  
The structure held firmly, however, allowing him to relax and ease the pressure  
on Galen's shoulders. He knew that the cape couldn't hold out forever, but it  
would still retain its shape without added concentration until the sun rose.

She purred softly as virtually his entire weight was taken off of her,  
allowing her to adjust her positioning yet again. She leaned into him for a  
deep kiss, moving her hips around until she could feel his slowly-reacting  
manhood pressing against the delicate softness of her pubic hair. A simple  
empathic command to the silken was all it took to gently cajole the creature  
into responding as well.

D tilted his head slightly to the side as her cape suddenly started to  
stretch and expand, very carefully molding itself around their bodies in what  
felt to be a thin shell. He remained as still as possible, letting his legs  
dangle freely as they were gently pressed against the tree. The edges of her  
hood started to spread out as well, flowing over the back of her head and his  
arms until it blotted out everything in inky darkness.

He heard a soft giggle in his ear as she leaned forward, resting her cheek  
against his and hugging him as tightly as she could. A series of hard cracks  
and snaps echoed rather loudly inside the confines of the cocoon, seeming to  
rival the rumblings of thunder as the storm continued to approach. A quick  
glance upwards revealed that they were completely encased except for a very  
narrow hole, presumably for air and ventilation.

"So what do you think?" she whispered quietly in his ear, her voice back  
to normal now that she didn't need to focus so hard on her insectoid form.

"Cozy," he commented, letting his lips tease her ear. He was rewarded  
with a very soft giggle in his own ear and a playful thrust of her hips against  
his, further increasing the feeling of heat building up in his loins.

"Think you can sleep like this?" she inquired as the tip of her tongue  
started to caress his ear.

He closed his eyes at the deliciously warm sensation, not being able to  
really see much of anything anyway. He paused as he heard a soft sound start  
up, realizing a moment later that it was a light rain starting to come down  
once again. The sound of it hitting the cocoon was decidedly unusual, but it  
certainly wouldn't be bothersome enough to prevent him from sleeping. That he  
was in a sort of sitting position and had maybe an inch of wiggle room was a  
different issue entirely, but it wasn't any worse than sleeping buried in the  
ground. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was actually better....

"I don't think I'll have any objections," he murmured softly. His arms  
were still around her shoulders and rather firmly encased by the cocoon walls,  
leaving him very little room to caress her skin. He settled for working his  
fingertips in slow circles as best he could, allowing his lips and tongue to  
mimic the delightful actions of her own on his ear.

He heard her laugh very softly in his ear before her hips moved against  
him again, sliding around in a gentle pattern until he found himself fully  
aroused and pressed up against her sheath. He couldn't repress the shiver of  
pure delight as she very lightly nibbled on the pointed tip of his ear as she  
brought herself forward, very slowly encasing him within her honeyed depths.

"Still think you can sleep like this?" she inquired in a wickedly playful  
tone as she settled against him, squeezing him with her internal muscles.

It took him a moment to remember how to use his voice. "You're kidding,  
right?" he said in an incredulous tone.

"Well, if you don't want to try...." she said as she slowly began to edge  
back, withdrawing him from her depths. She gasped softly as he thrust forward,  
burying himself within her warmth once again before easing back to draw her  
back down with him.

"Galen...." he murmured very softly. "You know this can't last, right?"

He was answered with a soft purr of delight, her lips roaming around the  
edge of his ear as she hugged him as best she could. "I just want you inside  
me, D," she whispered. "Just don't leave me, okay?"

"Galen.... I love you," he said simply, suddenly feeling another tear  
threatening to well up.

"Then love me, D," she replied with a gentle squeeze of her sheath. "Love  
me all night long, with your body and your heart, so that I can wake up in the  
morning and say that I was right, that every morning you wake me up is better  
than the last one."

He sighed quietly and simply held her, content for the moment to simply  
enjoy the gentle warmth and passion of being inside her. He wanted to ask if  
she felt the same way, if she could still love him after all that he had done  
to her.... but he was still afraid of the answer.

The thing in his hand said that she loved him and didn't know it yet, just  
as he wasn't fully aware that he loved her. Perhaps the morning would bring  
her the realization that she needed, that they both needed to put the pain of  
their unknown feelings behind them. For now, however, it was enough for him  
to be with her, to be in her arms, in her body, in her cocoon-like world.

Even if things would change in the morning.

The moderate rain against the cocoon and the gentle rumbles of thunder  
proved to be far more relaxing than either one had imagined, lulling them into  
a sort of light slumber even as their bodies remained merged together as one  
and bathed in the unique warmth they had to offer one another.


	6. Day 5 Eastern Forest

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story  
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements  
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her  
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything  
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in  
the movie is most likely her original plot material.) 

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond  
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

((Day 5 - Eastern Forest))

To say they slept was neither truth nor falsehood. Their minds never got  
the chance to descend into the depths of slumber needed for dreams to form,  
seeming to be caught in that most ethereal of conscious states where the mind  
was disconnected from the body.... or at least thought it was. 

Crossing the barrier back and forth into at least partial consciousness  
was a highly erotic experience for them both, becoming instinctively aware of  
the feelings their bodies continued to undergo as they remained intimately  
connected. Neither could fully remember the waves of bliss that seemed to come  
and go like short-lived tides, ebbing and flowing almost rhythmically before  
coming to a climax after several cycles. The resulting euphoria almost drove  
them into a state of full consciousness before they were slowly lured back down  
into that ephemeral realm of dreamless sleep and sleepless dreams.

Time in this state literally had no meaning, its passage unable to make a  
memorable impression on something that was unable to even recognize its own  
condition, let alone something that required a conscious thought. It seemed  
that an eternity passed before D's mind finally drifted up towards the surface  
of that ebbing and flowing sea, achieving consciousness at a slow pace until he  
was fully aware once again....

....And wondering just what the hell happened.

The air in the cocoon was dangerously warm but not suffocatingly so, the  
combined heat of their bodies keeping them feeling nice and snug despite the  
drop in the outside temperature. It took him a moment to realize that he was  
actually still inside her, not fully aroused but still able to feel the very  
subtle motions caused by their breathing.

He paused to listen to her, not a difficult task in the slightest given  
the fact that her head was still on his shoulder. Her breathing was slow and  
even, meaning that it was likely she was still asleep. How she could sleep  
with him still buried inside her was beyond him, but then again he had fallen  
asleep as well.... right?

A quick search of his memories produced only fuzz, not able to remember if  
he had actually fallen asleep or not. He thought about it for a few moments  
before dismissing it as inconsequential, as he could feel the stiffness in his  
joints from remaining motionless for too long. So apparently he had fallen  
asleep at one point or another, despite their most unusual position....

He could feel his manhood start to react even as he thought about it, the  
flesh firming up as more blood was directed towards it. His eyes parted a few  
moments later as the ache registered, warning him that his anatomy had been  
abused for the second night in a row and fairly hard at that. That hadn't  
happened to him in a very long time, not since....

No, he thought with a mental shake of his head. Let the past stay in the  
past for once in his life. All that mattered now was the present, that he had  
Galen in his arms, in his heart, and hopefully in his life again.

He had to suddenly bite the tip of his tongue to keep himself from moaning  
aloud as she suddenly squeezed him, sending a most delightful sensation racing  
up and down his spine. Whether the gesture had been instinctive or conscious  
wasn't known at the time, but it was very pleasurable regardless.

A very soft moan in his ear told him that she was indeed waking up, her  
body gripping him once again as her hips gently rocked forward. The moan that  
followed was distinctly louder than before, changing pitch to indicate that she  
was very much enjoying the feeling.

"Morning," he said very softly in her ear, letting his lips brush across  
the delicate shell as he spoke. He was answered with a very soft buzzing-purr,  
giving him the impression that a very happy bee was trying to land on him.

((Not yet it's not,)) she murmured softly in her insectoid voice. ((D, how  
are you feeling?))

He paused for a moment to listen to his body, making note of a higher than  
usual instances of sore joints and stiff muscles. The worst was probably his  
backside, feeling like it was three-quarters asleep and knowing that there was  
no way would be able to walk straight until he worked the kinks out. "Fairly  
well for sleeping in a tree," he finally said calmly.

((And this?)) she whispered as she clenched her internal muscles.

"Careful," he said very quietly. "I think I'm.... a little overworked."  
He could almost physically feel his pupils dilating as she started to rock her  
hips back and forth, just enough to produce an extremely warm feeling of liquid  
friction.

((Sure about that?)) she murmured huskily in his ear. ((I think you still  
have a little left in you....))

"Galen...." he breathed.

((Humor me, D,)) she replied. ((You simply can't imagine how good it feels  
to wake up to you like this.... oh, god, D, this is incredible....))

D said nothing as he held still, squeezing her shoulders gently as she  
continued to rock back and forth in a slow and gentle motion. He ignored the  
dull ache rising up from his groin muscles, focusing instead on the velvety  
sensation of being inside her. He estimated that only a minute or two had  
passed before she shuddered hard, feeling her muscles clamp down around him in  
a spasm of pure pleasure.

His eyebrows nearly leapt off of his forehead as his own orgasm seemed to  
come out of nowhere, ripping through his being in an instant and releasing yet  
another part of his life-energy into her. The orgasm was a weak one, at least  
compared to the ones he had experienced in the past, but he wasn't about to  
argue in the slightest as his senses briefly began to reel.

An explosive breath of air was released into his ear a moment later as she  
exhaled sharply, her body still shivering strongly with the aftershocks of her  
orgasm. She twisted her head to the side to try to kiss him, only able to move  
part-way because of the cocoon shell surrounding her.

He did his best to accommodate her, leaning and twisting around in the  
tight confines until their lips finally met. The light brushing immediately  
gave way to a deep kiss as she hugged him, her breath still heaving fairly hard  
in her lungs as she tried to calm down.

A cool waft of air surrounded them as the cocoon started to fall free, the  
top covering slowly drawing back to expose their heads and his arms. The heavy  
scent of wet forest registered on their senses a few seconds later, the trees  
and ground still flush with moisture from the thunderstorm.

Given enough space to move now, they quickly settled in for a proper kiss  
that continued long after her cape returned to normal and settled back into its  
usual position over her back. The chill of the pre-dawn air flowing over their  
naked bodies was a rather icy shock, causing them to both shiver lightly. The  
shiver promptly made them both moan softly as their still-joined hips rubbed  
against one another, further assaulting over-stimulated nerves and adding more  
tingles of pleasure.

((Now this is definitely a way to wake up,)) Galen buzzed softly once the  
kiss was broken. She tilted her head back to look at him, her facial features  
clearly formed into an insectoid shape.

"Indeed," he murmured softly, carefully trying to stretch his arms. He  
winced as they protested sharply at being forced to move, the muscles extremely  
stiff at the moment. A few careful flexes restored active circulation to them,  
slowly lessening the stiffness and pain with each pulse of his heart.

He looked up as she suddenly tensed, seeing a glimmer of pain and horror  
pass over her face for a cosmic instant. The feeling passed as quickly as it  
had come, leaving behind a somber and almost saddened look on her face. She  
looked up at him and sighed quietly, leaning forward to gently rest her head on  
his shoulder.

((It's starting,)) she murmured.

He frowned and cast a glance towards the treeline. They weren't facing  
due east but would still be exposed to the full brunt of the sun once it rose  
above the horizon. The sky was already tinted soft shades of red and orange as  
dawn approached, reflecting off a number of light gray clouds that still dotted  
the morning air.

"I'm here, Galen," he said quietly to her, carefully bringing his arm up  
to caress her face. "I'm right here and I'm not going to leave your side."

She looked up at him and smiled wanly, leaning forward to kiss him before  
adjusting her weight. She made a slight face as her hips slid back, removing  
him from within her and sending a minor cascade of fluids down to the ground.  
((Yeech,)) she muttered, her cheeks suddenly blooming into crimson radiance. She  
glanced up at him and blushed even harder, embarrassed at seeing just how much  
of a mess had been made by remaining physically joined during the night.

She suddenly tensed again, the soft contours of her face twisting into a  
grimace of pain. The feeling seemed to disappear after a few moments, leaving  
her quietly panting for breath as she gingerly cuddled up against him. She  
sighed after a few seconds and looked up at him, knowing that she needed to  
explain things to him sooner rather than later.

((This happens once a year,)) she said in a very soft tone. ((It's fairly  
cyclical in nature, although it doesn't always happen at the same time from  
year to year. I know when it approaches because I hardly bleed at all when it  
is time for my period. Shortly after that, my back.... changes.))

He said nothing as he listened to her quiet explanation, reaching up to  
gently stroke her hair. The gesture seemed to soothe her, a soft buzz drifting  
up from her throat after a few seconds of tender comfort and affection.

((The cramps are mild and easily ignored if I sleep attached to a tree at  
night,)) she whispered. ((The marks on my back continue to swell up until the  
rest of my body is ready, like it is now. Then at the moment of ovulation,  
when my body releases an egg to try to start a new life, the swellings split  
open to release.... to release my wings.))

D wasn't sure which statement shocked him more, the part about the marks  
on her back becoming wings or the part where she was at her most fertile right  
now. And after having spent the past two nights making love to her, releasing  
his seed into her most sacred of gardens....

"Wings?" he murmured softly, trying extremely hard to focus on the more  
immediate problem at hand. The very real possibility that he had just gotten  
her pregnant, or would in very short order, could be put off for a day or two  
as there were no absolute guarantees. Assuming, of course, that they both  
would live long enough for that to be a worthwhile concern....

((D.... they're beautiful,)) she whimpered softly, pressing her face into  
his shoulder. ((Oh, they're so lovely to look at.... and I can't protect them  
from the sun,)) she said, starting to cry again. ((They are too delicate, the  
light of the sun destroys them, burns them.... burns me....))

He just held her gently, absently brushing his lips against the softness  
of her shoulder. It made sense to him in a way, that if her wings were solely  
a product of her Barbaroi heritage that they would also dominate her human side  
in terms of constitution and resiliency. But that would also work against her,  
as the strength of her one-quarter Barbaroi blood would yield to the power and  
influences of her one-half vampire blood....

And burn up when exposed to the light of the sun. The rest of her would  
be protected by the other half of her combined blood, but without that human  
element to offset the violently fatal allergy....

He looked down at her as she shuddered hard, a protracted full-body shiver  
accompanied by a very low-pitched moan. It wasn't caused by the soul-tingle of  
the rising sun, but rather by the changes her body was undergoing in his very  
arms. The spasm finally passed and she slumped against him, her chest heaving  
from whatever pain or discomfort it had inflicted on her.

"Galen...." he started to say.

((Just hold me,)) she whispered, the buzzing tone in her voice making it  
extremely difficult for him to make out her words. ((They should be ready to  
emerge in a few minutes. Just.... just.... AH!))

Her cape suddenly began to move, rolling up in on itself from the bottom  
edge until it was neatly coiled around her shoulders like a shawl. He glanced  
down as she pressed herself even tighter against him, his eyes widening as he  
saw how large the swellings on her back had gotten. They seemed to ripple just  
slightly as she tensed yet again, her whole body shaking hard as her breath was  
audibly constricted in her throat.

He felt slightly nauseated as she suddenly relaxed and slumped against  
him, panting with exertion. Not that he was sickened by the sight of her back,  
but instead by the feelings of utter helplessness. Something was hurting her,  
soon to feel like it would literally kill her, and there wasn't a damned thing  
he could do about it. A physical threat he could deal with as a hunter, and he  
could probably even deal with most alchemical threats given the lessons he had  
learned during his travels. But a genetic threat.... that was something well  
beyond his control, and he didn't like it one bit.

His eyes closed of their own accord as she lifted her head up to kiss him,  
their lips softly blending together in the gentle kisses that they have been  
sharing for what felt like forever now. It didn't matter that it had only been  
a little over forty-eight hours since that first exploratory kiss back in the  
burrow, their souls recognized their respective mates when they encountered one  
another. Even if it took their minds a little longer to figure it out....

The kiss was abruptly broken with a sharp gasp, her body lurching against  
his in a hard spasm. She quickly buried her face in his shoulder, the air in  
her throat rattling hard as she struggled to breathe. The skin of her upper  
body began to darken as her Barbaroi blood started to assert itself, further  
hardening the angular lines of her insectoid features.

"Galen!" he called out as she suddenly arched her back, her mouth open in  
a silent scream. The frequency of her primal cry began to drop after a few  
seconds, finally reaching the point where he could hear it as an extremely raw  
buzzing noise that made the marrow in his bones resonate.

A faint tearing sound was heard a few moments later, accompanied by the  
feel of a dangerously hot liquid dripping down his legs. The fierce monotone  
buzz quickly increased in volume, seeming to fall silent as the frequency once  
again became too high for him to audibly hear it.

A second tearing sound reached his ears as she convulsed hard enough to  
almost dislodge her hold on the tree. She then remained perfectly still for a  
moment before collapsing forward against him, a heavy sigh of relief exiting  
her lungs as the tension and pain in her body seemed to melt away. She tried  
to whisper something to him, but her voice was simply too distorted for him to  
make any sense of.

"Just take it easy," he whispered to her, cradling her head against his  
shoulder as he reached down to massage her leg. He had to actively fight his  
instincts to wrap her in a hug, knowing that feeling his touch her back was  
probably the absolutely last thing she needed right now.

He gave her a deeply worried look as she laughed very quietly to herself,  
a sort of buzzing tone that alternated frequencies at a rapid rate. ((Wh....))  
she puffed softly, ((Would.... you believe.... that was.... the easy part?))

"Are you alright?" he asked, trying not to imagine just how it could be  
any worse. He remained still as she lifted her head up to look at him, her  
multi-faceted eyes seeming to ripple slightly like a gently-shaken liquid. It  
was like staring into the face of a giant insect, the only traces of her human  
form still discernable were the delicate swaths of her eyebrows, the gentle  
mane of blue-green hair spilling across her bare shoulders, and the softness of  
her pale blue lips. Even so changed by her exertions, even forced into a shape  
that was only vestigially human, he still found her to be very beautiful.

((Honestly?)) she said, the expression in her eyes unreadable. ((I've had  
better days. But this one hasn't been as bad as others. Not yet, at least,))  
she added in a subdued tone.

"Don't think of it," he told her, dipping his head down to kiss her. A  
soft buzzing-purr started up a few seconds later, the frequency sending faint  
ripples through both their bodies. The tender kiss lasted for a fairly long  
time before she tilted her head back, giving him a soft smile before taking a  
deep breath.

D blinked hard as he heard a liquid sound, looking over her shoulder to  
see an iridescent mass unfolding behind her. It seemed to slowly untwist and  
uncurl before fluffing out, twitching gently for a number of moments as they  
settled into place.

"Galen...." he breathed in awe as her butterfly-like wings started to dry  
out, their surface covered with countless tiny scales that acted as prisms in  
the early morning light. Every motion that was made, either from her body or  
his, seemed to result in a dazzling kaleidoscope of shimmering colors as the  
translucent scales refracted the light in every direction possible. "They're  
absolutely beautiful!"

((Thank you,)) she murmured softly, casting a glance over her shoulder at  
the newly-formed wings. They weren't very large in terms of her body's size,  
perhaps spanning sixteen inches from the tips to where they were anchored on  
her lower back. She tried flexing them gently, causing them to waft back and  
forth in slow motion. ((You're the only person other than my parents to ever  
see them,)) she said softly as she looked back up at him.

She blinked and closed her eyes as D very slowly reached up, brushing his  
fingertips across her upper back before carefully touching a fingertip to the  
iridescent surface. The gesture drew a soft gasp from her as the wing twitched  
away from him in a reflexive motion.

((Careful,)) she whispered softly, laying her head against his shoulder with  
a gentle sigh. ((They're extremely fragile and sensitive to the touch.))

"I'm sorry," he murmured as he returned his hands to her upper back, very  
gently rubbing her shoulders.

((Don't be,)) she replied, giving him a gentle hug before sighing quietly.  
((Just be gentle with them and enjoy them while you can, they won't last long.  
I'm.... I'm not looking forward to this, D, I just want to get this over with  
as quickly as possible. I'd have you cut them off if I hadn't tried that one  
before and almost died from shock.))

"Galen, please," he whispered, feeling a heavy pit forming in his stomach.  
"Please don't think about it. I'm right here with you."

((I know,)) she murmured as she lifted her head up to kiss him once again.  
((And you have no idea how much it means to me.... how much you mean to me.))

They lost themselves in the gentle depths of the kiss, warmed by not just  
the quiet embers of passion both past and future but by the bonds of love that  
they shared deep in their hearts as well. They didn't care what the distant  
future might have in store for them, or even about what the immediate future  
was going to dump in their laps. All that mattered was that they were together  
once again, in each other's arms and in each other's hearts.

And then the shiver of the rising sun passed through them both.

Galen's head snapped up, her eyes started to widen with terror as she knew  
what was coming next. ((D....)) she whimpered as she clutched him.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked quickly, already knowing the answer.

((Just.... just hold me,)) she blurted out, closing her eyes as she felt her  
back growing warm. ((Don't let go, don't let me go, just.... hold me!))

D nodded and tightened his grip around her, one arm wrapping around her  
upper back as close to her shoulderblades as he dared while the other slid down  
to gently grab hold of her backside, trying to provide support for her weight.  
He leaned his head against hers as she buried her face in his shoulders, able  
to feel the tension increasing in her body with each passing second.

He looked up as the edge of the sun appeared on the horizon, a mere sliver  
of radiance that slowly spread as it grew. The forest canopy seemed to blunt  
the worst of it at first, but soon the dawning light became intense enough to  
slip past the leaves and branches with brilliant rays of orange and yellow.

Her iridescent wings began to sparkle like diamonds as they were exposed  
to the sunlight, sending a cascade of gleaming rainbows in all directions. A  
strangled cry rose up from her throat an instant later, quickly muffled as she  
pressed her lips against his shoulder as hard as she could, the rest of her  
body starting to tremble.

D felt his own throat close up as he saw what the light was doing to the  
delicate perfection of her wings. The tiny scales began to darken, slowly  
turning black as they were first dried out completely and then slowly seared by  
the burning radiance. He tightened his grip on her even more as she began to  
writhe around in agony, her voice straining hard in her throat as she tried not  
to scream.

The battle was lost after a few seconds, her head tipping back as the pain  
simply became too much. A scream that was anything but human ripped out from  
the depths of her insectoid throat, the frequency high enough to make D's ears  
resonate dangerously close to the breaking point. He leaned forward to press  
his face against the softness of her neck, reflexively squeezing her with an  
almost crushing intensity as his nerves were overloaded by the unholy sound.

He wasn't sure if the frequency scaled up to the point where he couldn't  
hear her properly anymore or if his aural nerves simply shut down, but the  
intense noise quickly faded away after a few seconds of abuse. He suspected  
that the frequency had simply increased, as he was keenly aware of the feeling  
of his eardrums still vibrating at a dangerous rate. He didn't care if they  
ruptured, as they would fully regenerate within an hour if not sooner. Or at  
least they would once the nerve-shattering screams of her pain stopped....

Most of her wing surface was blackened now, the very edges curling inward  
as they continued to be charred by the light of the rising sun. It was all he  
could do to keep his grip on her as she thrashed around like a wild animal, her  
hands and feet threatening to be torn free from where they were buried in the  
tree-trunk. The crisped edges of her wings continued to shrivel up and break  
apart as he continued to watch the hideous and heart-wrenching scene, unable to  
tear his eyes away from the ghastly sight.

And then her wings suddenly burst into flames.

It took every ounce of his self-control not to immediately let go of her,  
to bring his hands up to try to extinguish the golden flames that were burning  
her once-lovely wings away. He could feel the surge in heat against his arm  
where he held her shoulders, threatening to burn him as well. The worst part  
was the sudden smell, a truly horrid stench of seared organic material that  
almost made him throw up.

Galen's screams of utter agony returned with a vengeance, seeming to make  
the entire forest shudder from the raw power behind her throat-rending cries.  
The claws on her hands ripped free from the trunk, sending a cascade of bark  
fragments scattering across them both. She might have fallen back if it hadn't  
been for his presence, his arms still wrapped around her body in an extremely  
tight embrace.

He didn't know what to do, how he could possibly help her cope with the  
excruciating feeling of having her nerves roasted alive. In desperation, he  
allowed his conscious mind to step back and turn his subconscious loose, giving  
it free rein to act on any impulses that came to him. There was a very brief  
hesitation before he finally reacted by instinct alone.

His grip remained firm as he pulled her against him, pressing his mouth to  
the soft junction of her throat and letting his vampiric nature assert itself.  
He didn't wait for his fangs to finish fully elongating before stabbing them  
downward, piercing her skin to open up a vein that was pulsing so rapidly that  
he wasn't able to differentiate one beat from the next. Her blood immediately  
gushed across his tongue as if vented from a fire-hydrant, briefly frightening  
him into thinking that he had missed his intended mark and tapped into her main  
artery by mistake.

And then the taste registered on his senses, the taste of unspeakable pain  
and relentless agony. It was unlike anything he had even remotely encountered  
before, almost literally burning his mouth and throat like acid as he took her  
blood. A distant part of his mind told him that perhaps this wasn't the best  
of actions given her dangerously overstressed condition, but he didn't relent  
as he continued to feed as gently as he could, determined to share in her pain  
and maybe even ease it in the process.

He sighed very quietly at the feeling of her fangs clamping down on his  
throat in return, burying the sharpened points as deeply as she could. The  
pressure of her jaws started to make him dizzy almost immediately as his brain  
was forced to try to operate on a reduced oxygen supply. He remained as still  
as he could, letting her feed from him as he was feeding from her.

It became obvious a few moments later that it was having an effect on her,  
and not just because she wasn't able to scream in his ear anymore. Her body  
was still wracked with very hard spasms and she seemed to scarcely be able to  
breathe properly, but the acid-sharp taste of her blood started to lessen ever  
so slightly. The feeling continued to fade as time ticked past, one agonizing  
second after another.

Neither knew how long they remained locked in that position, fangs buried  
deep in one another's throats with their blood slowly flowing between them.  
The flames on her back eventually died down, having consumed all that was left  
of her wings. There was only the faintest traces of ash covering her back when  
the last tongue of fire winked out, leaving behind only a small wisp of smoke  
and the heavy stench of burnt flesh.

D gently lifted his lips from her throat as she sagged against him, able  
to physically feel the worst of the pain draining away from her body as if a  
switch had been thrown. She continued to sip his blood for a few more moments  
before likewise edging her head back, just enough to extract her fangs. She  
immediately rested her head on his shoulder, her breath rasping so hard in her  
throat that he feared she might start to asphyxiate.

"Galen?" he murmured softly, very carefully stroking her upper back. He  
couldn't see her entire lower back from his angle, but he didn't see any signs  
of either her wings or the swellings they had grown in earlier. Whether that  
meant they had simply burned away into ash or had been healed already by her  
regenerative abilities was beyond him, but at the moment he didn't care. All  
that mattered to him was that she wasn't in pain anymore.

"Galen?" he repeated quietly, nuzzling her throat where he had bitten her.  
A small bruise was all that remained now, and even that much was very slowly  
starting to fade as he watched. "It's over now." He sighed softly and kissed  
her neck when she tried to say something to him, her voice completely raw and  
quite unintelligible.

"Don't try to talk," he murmured, reaching up to very gently stroke her  
hair. He paused as he saw how red the skin of his hand had become, obviously  
from being too close to the flames. It didn't bother him, or at least not yet,  
so he ignored it and resumed running his fingertips through the soft mane of  
blue-green hair at a slow pace.

He closed his eyes as he felt her lips brush against his collarbone, her  
hands moving up to re-anchor herself in the trunk. A dull needle of pain shot  
through his shoulder a moment later, registering itself as a single tear as it  
began to slowly slide down towards his chest.

His hand continued to gently slide through her hair as they gently nuzzled  
one another. The tremors persisted in her body for quite some time before they  
finally faded to the point where he couldn't feel them. He very slowly brought  
his other hand upwards, gliding his fingertips over the smoothness of her very  
shapely backside before starting to move higher up. He felt her tense as he  
approached the spot where her wings once were, seeming to relax as his light  
touch encountered only smooth skin.

She relaxed even further as he let his lips lightly roam across her ear,  
very gently exploring every curve and contour with the softest of caresses. He  
finally heard a soft sound drifting up from her throat, raw and weakened but  
still recognizable as her insectoid hum of pleasure.

"Are you alright?" he murmured softly, parting his lips to let the tip of  
his tongue brush against her earlobe.

((I am now,)) she rasped weakly, her voice still audibly straining.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked, still quietly afraid that he had.

((No,)) she replied as she hugged him as tightly as she could under the  
circumstances. Another tear dripped down to splash his shoulder, producing a  
second twinge of pain that was ignored as easily as the first. ((D.... thank  
you,)) she whispered.

He said nothing as he very gently stroked the full length of her back, his  
fingertips lightly massaging and rubbing whatever muscles they happened to  
encounter. Her back seemed to spasm briefly before relaxing, a very soft sigh  
flowing from her lips to tickle his ear.

They both nearly leapt off the tree as the all-but-forgotten silken began  
to uncurl, slowly lowering itself from her shoulders and stretching out along  
her back. It gently flowed over D's hands as if their presence didn't matter,  
spreading out until it hung from her shoulders like an ordinary cape.

((Well,)) she murmured very softly, ((I think that's a positive sign that I'm  
doing better now. That reminds me, how's your cape holding up?))

"I think we'd both know if it wasn't," he said quietly, giving her ear a  
feather-light kiss before leaning his head back. "You sure you're alright?"

He was answered with a soft sigh and a tight squeeze of her body against  
his. ((Ask me later,)) she replied in a subdued tone. ((I still have a.... let's  
just call it a sore spot and leave it at that. No, don't stop doing that,)) she  
added quickly as he lifted his hands from her back. ((Please, don't stop. Yes,  
it still hurts right now, but your touch also feels good. Yes, nice and gentle  
like that,)) she whispered as he resumed his attentions.

"And you go through this every year?" he asked softly, trying very hard  
not to imagine what it must have been like the first few times.

((Yes,)) she sighed. ((It's rather ironic, really, seeing how I could easily  
like the autumn season if it wasn't for that.)) She paused and adjusted her  
weight slightly, resetting her claw-like grip on the tree trunk. ((D?))

"Yes?" he murmured as he nuzzled her neck.

((I think we need to get down from here now,)) she said. ((Something tells  
me I'm not going to be able to hold this form for much longer, even though I'm  
too exhausted to try to consciously switch back. Hold onto me for a moment?))

He paused to think for a moment before he removed his hands from her back.  
"You sure?" he said carefully. "We're not that high up from the ground. You  
should be able to climb down on your own and I can jump down once you're out of  
the way. I don't want to put any more strain your body," he added gently.

She leaned back with a slight frown on her face, the insectoid lines of  
her face not so sharply angular anymore. ((Are you sure?)) she countered. ((I  
would imagine that you're not used to hanging from a tree like that and that  
your muscles would be a little uncooperative. I can support you long enough to  
get us both down to the ground, D. Although once your feet are on the ground,  
your problems are your own to deal with,)) she added with a hint of humor.

He gave her a look of mild amusement as he considered his options. He was  
about to tell her to climb down by herself when he suddenly was reminded of the  
fact that his backside was very much asleep right now. He could still make a  
concerted effort at jumping down the three-foot distance to the forest floor,  
but it was unlikely that any such landing would be graceful even if it should  
be successful.

"Very well," he said quietly. He carefully braced himself and wrapped his  
arms around her shoulders again, waiting until she was likewise braced before  
taking his weight off of his cape. The fabric immediately fluffed out into a  
normal shape and form with a quiet snap that was audible to them both. Galen  
stared a careful descent a moment later, moving slowly to ensure that she had  
a firm purchase on the trunk with each step.

They reached the ground a few seconds later, D letting go of her shoulders  
the instant he had his feet beneath him. He almost ended up squarely on his  
backside a fraction of a second later as his buttocks all but refused to flex,  
feeling more like a pair of rocks than useable muscles.

"There we go," Galen rasped quietly, the insectoid features of her body  
seeming to completely melt away within seconds. She blinked and seemed to  
stagger briefly, reaching out to grab his arm for support before leaning in to  
hold him in a tight hug. "Ow," she whimpered as her back spasmed in protest.

D leaned back against the tree and reached out to her, sliding his hands  
around her hips to resume gently massaging her lower back. He paused and held  
still as she suddenly pulled away from him, turning around so that her back was  
facing him. She then rested her lower body against him, leaning forward at the  
waist to give him plenty of room to work with.

"Thank you," she purred gratefully as he started rubbing her back again.  
She looked over her shoulder as he made a loud whistling noise, hearing a soft  
equine snort in response a few seconds later. The mount soon trotted over to  
them, the leather saddle-bags still damp from exposure to last night's rain.

A gentle sigh rose up from her throat as he very gently pushed her away,  
leaning over her to kiss the nape of her neck. He quickly headed over to the  
horse, seeming to wobble slightly with a fairly stiff gait. The saddle-bag was  
opened up and a small jar extracted before it was sealed again, the mount being  
given a friendly pat on the flank in thanks.

She watched first with curiosity, then open amusement as the jar lid was  
twisted off to reveal a mass of pale cream. The cream was quickly applied to  
the upper edges of his backside before the jar was carried over to her, a look  
of what might have been faint embarrassment tinting his cheeks. She remained  
where she was as he slipped behind her again, reaching out to gently pull her  
back against him.

"Cold," she hissed in mild shock as she felt the cream gently applied to  
her lower back. She blinked as she felt her skin and muscles start to warm up  
almost immediately, a slow and deep sensation of heat seeping into her flesh.  
"D, what is that?" she asked as she felt the tightness in her back muscles very  
slowly unwind.

"Just a general-purpose cream to relieve muscle pain," he explained as he  
continued to massage it into her lower back.

"I might have to steal some of that from you," she purred, feeling most of  
the lingering pain melt away beneath his gentle touch.

"I'll show you how to make it later," he replied. He continued to rub the  
cream into her skin until his fingertips started to burn, knowing that her skin  
was likely feeling the same reaction by now. He screwed the jar shut and went  
back over to the mount, exchanging the jar of cream for the underwear that had  
been cleaned and dried the day before.

He paused as he felt her approach him, remaining still as her hands slid  
around his waist to wrap him in a gentle hug. "D?" she said quietly. "I'm not  
sure how to say this and have it truly mean something, but.... thank you."

"You're more than welcome, Galen," he said quietly, reaching down to place  
his free hand over hers. "I only hope that you can forgive me for all the pain  
I've caused you."

She sighed and rested her cheek against the broad expanse of his back.  
"Would you believe me if I said you're forgiven?" she said very softly. "I'm  
not sure what I would have done without you holding me like that. D, I.... I  
think you just helped me discover how to make that.... tolerable. It still  
hurt, of course, probably the worst pain you or I will ever feel in our lives,  
but when we were joined like that.... joined in blood.... I could taste your  
strength, your resolve. It made me realize that I could draw it from you, that  
I could rely on you to help me get through the pain, the agony. I could even  
taste the echo of my pain in your blood," she whispered.

She looked up as he gently twisted around to face her, his eyes seeming to  
still be haunted with the lingering memory of her pain. "No-one's ever been  
able to do that for me, to try to absorb my pain like that," she breathed. "I  
know my mother would have done so in an instant if she could, but she wasn't  
able to do so. My father might have, but he never considered taking my blood.  
And Mikhail.... I couldn't let him see me in that kind of pain, so I kept it  
hidden from him. What you did, what that did for me.... I can't put it into  
words, D, other than to say thank you."

"I owed you," he replied quietly. "With as much as I have hurt you, I  
felt that I deserved to share in it."

"To share in my pain.... or to share in me?" she asked softly, studying  
his expression carefully.

"Does it matter which one it is?" he said. "I love you, Galen, and now  
that I know I love you I want everything there is about you. Your laughter,  
your joy, your smile, your kiss, your touch, your taste.... and yes, your pain  
as well. It's all a part of you, the good and the bad, and I'm not going to  
turn away from you ever again just because I see something I don't care for."

The tears started to well up in her eyes as she leaned forward to hug him  
tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. "Is.... is that a promise, D?" she  
asked in a soft whisper.

He hesitated for a slight moment before nodding. "Yes," he replied in a  
quiet tone, his arms reaching up to hold her. "I promise.... my love." He  
fell silent as she started to cry again, knowing that nothing more needed to be  
said at this point. At least, not from him. But there was still one lingering  
concern, however, and that would have to be addressed in the very near future.

He blinked hard as she suddenly pushed herself away from him, her liquid  
eyes widening in surprise and shock as she stared at his shoulder. It took him  
a moment to figure out what she was looking at, the pair of faint red marks her  
falling tears had left where they splashed against his skin.

"D!" she gasped. "What.... what's happening here?" she said, reaching out  
to almost but not quite touch the marks.

"Tears burn me," he said simply. "I don't know how or why."

"What?" she demanded, giving him an incredulous look. "You mean all this  
time I've been burning you by crying on your shoulder, and you never bothered  
to tell me?"

"It's nothing," he said calmly. "A minor skin allergen at worst. Don't  
worry about it. We probably should try to get dressed," he added as he held  
out the dry underwear to her.

She paused for a moment to cast a reflexive glance down at her nude body,  
having all but forgotten about the fact that they were both only wearing their  
dark capes. "D.... why didn't you tell me?" she asked as she accepted the pair  
of panties and started to slip them on.

"It wasn't important," he replied as he stepped into his own undershorts.  
"What was important was bringing you the comfort you needed." He paused for a  
moment to fiddle with his waistband before adding, "And if I could share in  
your pain in some way, even in such a minor way.... I thought it would bring me  
closer to you. And it did."

A gentle silence enveloped them as she moved forward to embrace him once  
more. She carefully wiped her tears away before laying her head back down on  
his shoulder, basking in the gentle warmth of both his body and his presence.

"Galen?" D asked softly, figuring that now was a good time as any to ask  
about his concerns. "I need to ask you about something, about what you said  
earlier about.... about the timing of everything."

"You mean with my wings?" she murmured softly without lifting her head up.

"About what finally releases them," he managed to say in a calm tone as a  
sudden wave of anxiety swept through him. He remained silent as she reached  
out to take his hand, very gently pressing it to her bare breast and squeezing  
his palm around her.

"You don't need to worry about that today," she whispered softly, closing  
her eyes and trying to relax at his intimate touch. "This took a long time to  
figure out and verify, but the same changes in my body that releases the egg  
also releases my wings. However, the stress of having my wings.... incinerated  
like that.... corrupts me on the inside. Even if both the egg and your seed  
inside me survived, there won't be anywhere for it to go. The corrupted lining  
will be expelled with my next cycle so my regeneration can repair the damage.  
I'm.... I'm not sure I can even have children anymore, not after.... after I've  
been so corrupted, so tainted on the inside by the strain, year after year...."

The only reason he didn't consider breathing a sigh of relief was because  
of the pain in her voice. The idea of fathering a child was a concept that he  
found to be between bothersome and downright frightening, but he knew that was  
simply because he feared spreading the taint of his vampiric blood. But Galen  
was a woman, intended to be the bearer of life and the future, so of course it  
made sense for her to have a different view of things. And if you factored in  
the fact that she was the last female of her kind....

He still felt that the world would be better off without his dark blood.

Or hers.

But he loved her, and so he wouldn't.... he couldn't kill her.

He might be able to live with that, to keep her by his side until their  
final hours, until the end of their days however it might come to someone who  
has an eternal life-span. But to unite themselves in body for a purpose other  
than their love for one another, to do so with the intent and hope of creating  
a new spark of life....

It was very likely that she would want children of her own one day.

Hers.... and his.

Could he do that? Could he put his entire past aside, to turn his back on  
all that he had fought for, sacrificed for in his pursuit of ending the stain  
of his dark blood on the world, and instead spread more of it around? To sire  
a child that would be every bit as vampiric as he was? One who would suffer a  
life filled with the same pain he had suffered through since his own birth?

The immediate answer was no, of course he couldn't do that. Besides, it  
sounded like she wouldn't be able to conceive or bear children regardless, not  
if she kept having problems with her womb, that most sacred of gardens....

He blinked and looked up as he felt her touch on his face, gently turning  
his head to look at her. "D?" she whispered softly, a look of unease filling  
her blue-green eyes. "What are you thinking about? Please.... don't try to  
hide it from me," she implored as she saw the hesitation in his eyes. "After  
all that we've been through together, with all that we will go through together  
soon.... please, tell me."

"Galen...." he whispered softly, pausing as his voice sounded surprisingly  
dry and raspy. "I.... I'm not sure I want to have children."

"D?" she said in a cautious tone. "I don't recall asking anything like  
that. I don't even know if I want to have any of them myself at this point."  
She paused for a moment before sighing softly and closing her eyes. "But....  
but if I did, I.... I...."

((Excuse me,)) the thing in D's hand suddenly spoke up in a very soft voice.  
((Don't mean to interrupt here, but I think you two are getting just a little  
ahead of yourselves. I don't suppose either of you has even stopped to figure  
out what you're going to do next?))

Both Galen and D exchanged slightly startled and uneasy glances before  
looking down at the wrinkled face in D's left hand. "I.... really don't know,"  
Galen admitted quietly with a delicate blush. "I mean.... I still want to go  
see my mother's grave since we're out here, but after that...."

((D, I don't suppose you've figured anything out either?)) it prodded. ((I  
mean, you've had how much time to think now, four days? Five? And don't tell  
me you haven't been thinking about it, because we both know you have.))

He remained silent for a number of moment, his right arm moving to slide  
around her hip and squeeze her gently. "I don't know," he said simply.

((Well, they do say love is blind,)) it pointed out in an amused tone. ((And  
from my perspective, you two are definitely as blind as a pair of Jamaican  
fruit bats blundering about in the middle of the day. Why don't you two get  
dressed while I explain things to you? Of course, I'm assuming you'll want to  
listen to what I have to say, seeing how I think I've got it all figured out  
for you,)) it added in a guarded tone.

Galen glanced over at D before casting a look over his shoulder at the  
horse idly grazing off in the distance. "How wet do you think everything will  
still be?" she murmured, not looking forward to the notion of having to put the  
soggy clothes back on.

"They'll dry out soon enough," D assured her as he let go of her waist to  
take hold of her hand. He gave her a gentle squeeze before leading her over to  
the mount, opening up the saddle-bags where they had stashed their clothes last  
night. "We're listening," D added with a glance at the thing in his hand.

((Glad to hear it,)) it replied dryly. ((The way I see it, the topic of the  
two of you staying together is not up for discussion. You're in love with one  
another, that much is obvious. And Galen? Whatever you feel inside when you  
look at him, hold his hand, kiss him, think of making love to him, all those  
feelings are part and parcel of being in love. Feel free to confess the depth  
of your feelings to him at your leisure.))

Galen paused as D lifted his head up from the saddle-bags to look at her,  
his expression seeming to be one of slight unease. A delicate blush crossed  
her face as she moved over to him, brushing her fingertips across his chest as  
she leaned in to give him a soft kiss. "D.... I do love you," she whispered,  
feeling her whole body tingle suddenly at saying the words. "I love you," she  
repeated in an even softer whisper as his lips, his whole body seemed to melt  
beneath her touch.

It seemed that a minor eternity passed before their lips separated, the  
warmth and taste of the kiss lingering in their minds for far longer. She laid  
her head on his shoulder as he gently resumed unpacking their clothes, neither  
one truly caring right now about anything other than the depth of their love for  
one another.

((You know,)) it spoke up quietly once it was sure it was safe to do so,  
((According to some traditions, the two of you are already married now.))

"What?" D said, almost dropping his tunic on the ground in surprise.

((The blood-marriage, remember?)) it pointed out. ((Granted that usually is  
only done between a human and a vampire, but there is a precedent for such a  
thing to be done between nobles. I can't say I've heard how it goes between  
two dunpeals like yourselves, but you two are bound together in blood. I'm a  
credible witness to events, right?))

"Well...." Galen said slowly, casting a brief glance at D as her usually  
pale complexion became the color of ripe tomatoes. "Be that as it may.... what  
does it mean for us?"

((It means you two are inseparable now,)) it explained. ((I mean, yes you  
are free to go your own ways like humans are in their bonds of marriage, but I  
don't see that happening. You two are bound as one now, which means you will  
be staying with one another. And therein lies the solution to D's worries.

((Don't you see, D? All this time you were worried about what Galen might  
do if left alone, or rather her vampiric blood. So if you keep her close to  
you, you can keep an eye on her right? And it goes both ways. You've always  
been worried about letting yourself slip, about losing control and becoming the  
darkness that you've hated your entire life. So why not let Galen watch over  
you? I'm sure she'll run you through again if you get out of line....))

Both D and Galen froze in mid-motion, ironically in the same position of  
hiking their distinctly damp pants up over their presently-dry underwear. A  
startled look crossed D's face at the realization, quickly melting into one of  
sheer amazement as he turned to look at Galen.

"Well, now there's a thought," she said slowly, absently rebuttoning her  
pants and zipping it shut. "D.... would you trust me to do that for you? To  
keep you in line, as it says? I'll take that as a yes," she added with a soft  
giggle as he simply nodded mutely, still clearly left speechless by the sheer  
simplicity of the proposition.

((Hey, guys?)) it spoke up. ((If you're going to do this, you may as well  
pull out all the stops and do it right. Why not make it a for-real marriage in  
blood and make a formal blood-oath to watch over one another? You know, like  
what you did earlier when you started on this little cross-country trip.))

D and Galen looked at one another again, both in the process of buttoning  
their shirts. She paused as he came over to her, reaching out to gently caress  
the soft swells of her breasts. That led to several moments of tender kisses  
and muted whimpers of passion, his hands kneading and massaging her feminine  
flesh before easing them into the confines of her blouse. The damp fabric did  
very little to conceal the protrusions of her hardened nipples, but neither one  
of them was in a mood to care as they continued to kiss with gentle passion.

He glanced down as her hand brushed over his waist, lightly rubbing his  
exposed abdomen before reaching further past him to the combat belt slung over  
the saddle-bag. She grabbed the hilt of the larger of the two weapons and very  
slowly withdrew it, the rigid metal rasping softly as it left the sheath.

She paused to study the blade for a moment, examining the way the stems of  
the flowers were delicately intertwined. "Whomever crafted this certainly had  
an eye for detail," she murmured softly. "D.... do you think this blade will  
suffice? I know it has left its own mark on your past, but.... but I think the  
design is appropriate," she said as she looked up at him. "Two different lives  
twisted together and forever etched as a single entity...."

D remained quiet as he looked down at the weapon, unable to stop himself  
from remembering how it had come into his possession the first time, and how he  
thought he had found a way to rid himself of both the blade and the memories  
that had haunted him for so long. But her voice had fallen silent when he had  
saved that little girl's life, using what he had viewed as the memento mori of  
a past failure to prevent a second one. Balance had been restored, and so the  
blade was free to hold a new purpose, a new weight on the scales of life....

Life or death.

"Galen," he said slowly, "You do realize that if we make such a pledge to  
one another.... I will be honor-bound to kill you should you ever turn against  
an innocent. A true innocent," he added, "Not against someone you have a just  
and true cause to turn against."

A soft smile crossed her pale blue lips even as the tip of the dagger was  
drawn across her palm. "I would expect nothing less of you, D," she said as  
she allowed her blood to slowly ooze down the blade. "Should it come to pass  
that you turn against an innocent of any race or kind without just cause, then  
your life shall be forfeit and I swear by my honor and my blood that I will be  
the one to see justice is done. I will then follow you into the realm that  
lies beyond the living, for I want nothing to do with a world where you can't  
be by my side anymore. If this is a marriage vow, then I not just accept it  
but embrace it with all my heart and soul. Until death do we part," she added  
in a soft voice.

D's left hand gently wrapped around hers as it held the dagger, slipping  
his right hand in-between her bleeding palm and the bloody tip of the blade.  
"Then I shall promise you the same," he said quietly as his own blood started  
to flow, mingling with hers over the intricate etchings. "Should you ever cast  
aside your humanity, I will hunt you as I have hunted the others and cast your  
soul into the abyss of oblivion. Then I too will seek the embrace of the void,  
for without your love the only meaning my life would have would be to end the  
dark plague of vampiric blood once and for all.... including my own. I will  
not try to live without you, and I will gladly accept the bonds of your love in  
the union of marriage as long you accept mine. Until death do we part."

((Then let it be done,)) the thing said quietly, more than willing to ignore  
the fact that their blood was starting to seep past their intertwined fingers  
to ooze across it. ((Wash the blade if you want, but it has already tasted of  
your blood and heard your vows to one another. It will remember for us all.))

The kiss that followed was just as soft and gentle as the others, perhaps  
not the deepest one but undeniably the most powerful either of them had ever  
experienced in their lives. Time itself seemed to quietly flow around them,  
leaving them locked in frozen motion as they savored the soft taste that was  
but a single aspect of their love for one another.

The gentle caress of the breeze finally convinced their lips to part. D's  
tunic was still open and they were both still in fairly damp clothes, the faint  
chills of cooled skin starting to make itself known on their conscious minds.

"I love you, D," Galen whispered as D carefully wiped the mass of crimson  
off of the etched dagger. It wasn't done out of malice or a disregard for the  
solemnness of the blood-vows, but out of simple practicality.

"And I love you, Galen," D replied quietly, casting a final glance at the  
dagger before returning it to the sheath. He doubted he would ever be able to  
use it as a weapon again, to taint it with someone or something else's blood  
after having been witness to such a union of love and honor. Perhaps he could  
find a suitable place to hang it one day, a place where....

"Galen?" he suddenly asked as the realization sank in.

"Yes?" she asked as she tucked her blouse into her pants and reached for  
her boots. She paused and looked up at him as his tone registered, suddenly  
wondering what was going through his mind to put that particular expression on  
his face.

"I just realized something," he said quietly. He turned to look at her,  
making a slight gesture towards the weapon. "I thought that we might put that  
on a wall one of these nights, in a place we can call a home together.... but  
I don't have a home anymore. I haven't had one since I left my father's palace  
to start my hunt."

She blinked as she realized what he meant, suddenly reminded of the fact  
that she really didn't have a home anymore either now that her father's castle  
lie in ruins. Sure, she had her burrow, but that was more of a private retreat  
than an actual place to call home. "Well," she said slowly, "I don't exactly  
have one either, you know. I guess that means we'll just have to make one."

He looked at her for a moment before nodding in understanding, realizing  
that it would probably be quite awhile before they would find a place to settle  
down and live. A life on the road was hard at times, but aside from the first  
few decades of his life it was all he had known. Changing that would take a  
great deal of getting used to.

But then again, he realized, so would having Galen as his bride. It was  
enough to make him dizzy just thinking about it. He was married now, in both  
blood and in soul. Not that he had the slightest hesitations or the faintest  
regrets about it, but it was still.... startling to think about. His life had  
just changed in ways he had never thought possible. This was going to take  
some getting used to.... okay, it would take a LOT of getting used to.... but  
he had her now.

And that was all that mattered.

Except for one relatively minor detail....

"Galen?"

"Yes, D?"

"......What do we do now?"

They both simply looked at one another, realizing that it was a very fair  
question and one that truly required an answer. They knew that they would be  
together no matter what was decided.... but what exactly the decision would be  
was presently a mystery to the both of them.

"I.... don't know," she said quietly. "I suppose we could still go to see  
my mother, right? I mean, surely she'd like to meet the man I've fallen in  
love with and took as my husband...." she added with a soft purr of amusement,  
reaching out to take his hand in hers.

He nodded in understanding. "And then?" he prompted.

"Well...." she said slowly as she looked around to think. She paused as  
something clicked in her mind and she turned back to him. "What about your  
mother?" she inquired carefully. "Where does she rest?"

D stopped for a moment to think about it. His father had gone to a rather  
considerable effort to keep the location of her crypt well-hidden to prevent  
further desecration to her body and memory. It was actually a lot closer to  
the ruins of the palace than most had suspected, which would put it....

"Far away from here," D replied quietly. "On another continent."

"How long would it take us to travel there?" Galen inquired gently, her  
hands reaching out to slowly button his tunic with a soft touch.

"By horse?" he asked, giving her a slightly uncertain look.

"I'm certainly not advocating walking there," she countered with a soft  
smile and a playful kiss. "And if it's on another continent, we'd have to go  
by sea at some point. How long?"

He thought about it for a moment, knowing that her presence would slow his  
usual rate of travel. He finally settled for doubling the estimate for the  
land component and leaving the ocean component unchanged. "Several months," he  
finally said. "Possibly even a year depending on the weather and the strength  
of the ocean currents."

"Well," she said lightly as she untied his cape and slipped it off his  
shoulders, "I don't know about you, my love, but I don't have anything else to  
do anymore. We can spend our days walking around the planet, for all I care.  
Just as long as you're with me," she murmured as she gave him another kiss.

((D?)) the thing spoke up. ((She has a point. I don't know about you, but  
there are a few places I wouldn't mind returning to for a little sight-seeing.  
Surely you remember that little tavern in that seaport by the desert? They had  
the most delicious.... !!!))

Galen chuckled as she wrapped her other hand around D's left hand, gently  
making a fist to keep it quiet. "Your point has been made, little one, but I  
think you should let us worry about it from now on. D?" she prodded quietly.  
"Don't you think your mother would have wanted to meet me if she were still  
with us today?"

D said nothing as he reached into a belt-pouch, pulling out the small  
locket that he hadn't seen since his mother's death. A simple gesture of his  
thumb flipped the lid open, allowing him once again to see the soft lines of  
her human beauty. What would you think, Mother? he thought, feeling a gentle  
tug on his soul. Would you approve of what I've done with my life? Would you  
have opened your heart to Galen as your daughter-in-law, to welcome her with  
your love her as you have loved me?

"Yes," D said very quietly, gently closing the locket and looking up at  
the unique human-vampire-Barbarois mutant hybrid that was his salvation, his  
life, and his love. "Let's go see my mother again."

The rest of their clothes were donned, their weapons untied from the oak  
tree where they had rode out the thunderstorm, and the rest of their gear was  
neatly repacked in the saddle-bags. He climbed into the saddle first, reaching  
down to help her up in front of him. They paused to share a gentle kiss, able  
to find a new sort of comfort in what had been all but unknown five days ago.

A lot can happen in five days, D had said. It was a thought that would  
bring a gentle smile to their faces whenever it was uttered, always softly in  
the other's ear to be followed by a gentle kiss that said far more than any  
spoken words could ever do.

And with a simple flick of the reins, they set out together towards the  
east, not just into the morning sun still rising on the horizon but into the  
changed world that lay before them.

THE END 

Note: This story has been formatted to comply with fanfiction net's engine.  
To view the original formatting, please visit my webpage: www sailormoonv net


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